Emperor of Mars
by Danny Barefoot
Summary: AU. Earth lost the war two years ago. Slaine is Emperor of Terra and Mars, married to Asseylum, waiting to die. I don't own Aldnoah Zero, please R&R. Chpt 3 and chpts 6-10 expanded.
1. Prologue

**Earth. Off the Canary Islands, 2018**

No man is an island, so they say. Not even on an Assault Carrier's top-deck, surging across the Atlantic. Not even an Emperor, gazing on the heavenly curve of his wife's back. She looks away at the ocean spray below us, bright as fire. Stares desperately up towards heaven.

"So pure."

"My Queen?"

"Back then...it was such a pure blue. That's all."

I've had time to read about Rayleigh scattering in three years. Along with optics, meteorology, the changes nuclear war and regret make to the colour of the sky. But she barely asks me anything, now. I (almost) don't mind. Nothing I could tell her would be free from the Lie.

A pillar of smoke hangs over Tenerife, like the angel of death. The black spirit that seized my darling's destiny in that terrible week three years ago. One year later, as Emperor, I ended the war with Terra. Whenever the Terrans rebelled, I ended them. Then I built my Empress of Terra and Mars a castle on her favourite island. The rebels blew them both to ash.

I feel cold, even in my cloak and red jacket. But I grew used to the cold of Martian nights, and the loneliness, worse than Cruhteo's hardest blows. My only dream of warmth was in my Princess, back then. To dwell in her gentle beauty, bring a smile of joy to her perfect lips...her golden hair will always be a wonder, but she hardly smiles at all, now. No matter what I do.

"You came for me again, Slaine. You'll always be with me, won't you?"

She still can't break free. I still can't save her. I don't speak.

Her favourite gown trembles with her body, as the boom of anti-missiles drifts over the water. I had a full wing of Sky Carriers and a dozen Kataphracts ready to protect her. When they've destroyed these terrorists, I'll announce another purge in North Africa. I can picture the reprisal bombings and counter-reprisals, as if every miserable report were already waiting in the throne room of New Washington. I don't feel hate for them. Anyone I ever hated is dead now. But I can never show mercy. Not while a Terran who could conceive of harming Asseylum is left alive.

Like ripples in pure water, worry lines embrace her eyes. No hurt ever crept there in the lost days of our childhood; only the bright pain of compassion, for even a worthless Terran boy. Stabbed with contempt by every eye on that red planet. Restored to life each morning by her smile of grace–she was my saviour, from the hour we met. Even if the Martian boys, then Cruhteo's soldiers, beat me every night–I had to protect her. Smile for her, be strong. Say everything was fine. Never pain her gentle heart with knowledge of Martian hate.

I still don't tell her anything about the bombings, the purges, or the labour camps. We haven't even slept together since my night terrors started. I try to count the innocents I've killed, or the hatred for Mars I've bred, and I can't stop until I scream and weep. It's my punishment, the hell I deserve, because I showed Asseylum's enemy the mercy she would have shown, and he shot her in the head and chest.

Every morning, I see anxious fear defile her eyes; the Aldnoah revival tank that saved her couldn't cure that. And I know I would do all of it again. The guilt of murder is nothing like that agony of failure. _Failing her._ Watching her fall, in her blood…no mercy. Never again.

"Slaine? Do you still believe we might ever have peace?"

Another question? I was too surprised to answer at once.

"Of course, my Queen; I promised you! The world will have peace and so will you‒"

"No. Until you have peace, Slaine, no one will. And I know…for three years…you haven't believed you'll ever find it. I'm sorry."

I was searching for an answer, when my wife looked straight at me. The silver pistol, my own pistol, always within reach, shone in her hand.

"Slaine, I know. You killed Inaho-San. You lied."

I stare at her. Raise one finger, and carefully tap my forehead.

-0-

-0-

_(_**_Inaho _**_draws his handgun._

**_Slaine _**_shoots him._

_He falls dead, beside _**_Asseylum _**_and _**_Saazbaum's _**_bodies. Slaine kneels between _**_Inaho _**_and the Princess)_

_**Slaine: **__For love, the best of Earth and Mars are dead,_

_For nothing did I in hate, but all in love._

_And pity, Orange. For how could you live?_

_With Mars and Earth's sweet light snuffed out in blood?_

_My Princess, fallen in the arms of death,_

_My sun, my heaven, broken in my sight!_

_Weep blood! Descend to hell with this vile world!_

_Or make your heaven, Slaine, in these faint breaths,_

_That nothing can guard, but royal power of Mars._

_Now, _love_, this word that old men call divine,_

_Drive shame and mercy from my ice-locked heart!_

_Make bloody my mind, cast me to hell alone,_

_If only I might seize a blood-red crown._

_And keep my love, more precious than two worlds,_

_In fortresses of paradisal peace._

_Until I have the crown I shall not rest,_

_And count myself but _bad_, 'til I be _best_._

_I'll guard my love within a secret room,_

_Then triumph, Orange, in our day of doom._

_(Exit, bearing _**_Asseylum_**_)_

‒from _Slaine Troyard: the Last Emperor_, a Martian stage play first performed in 2055


	2. Castle of Death

**Castle Cruhteo, Japan, 2015**

One hundred thirty-five days from Mars to Earth, by Aldnoah-drive spaceship. Four-and-a-half months after the battle of Novosibirsk, holed up in the shell of Castle Cruhteo with my Princess. I drove every Terran straggler from the blasted city. With the Tharsis' speed and the Landing Castle's sensors, I shut down all military movement in Japan. Selfish Terran, or Martian traitor, none of them would touch her again.

I would protect her. A lone knight, in his castle of ruin. His beautiful princess, asleep in a white silk bower. Bound to life-support. A dream come alive, a sick nightmare.

I kept up the daily PT demanded of every Martian soldier. In my spare hours, I used the Tharsis to gather all of the loyal soldiers Saazbaum had killed. I had tears left for them, even in a world we had covered with the odour of death. I buried them all.

Sometimes I stared at my Kataphract's visor, imagining Count Cruhteo's gaze of contempt. I'd never hated him. He'd respected the Princess; I'd dreamed of him respecting me. I'd taken his hate, his torture, in silence‒for Asseylum's sake, I had to be strong. But since Novosibirsk, I couldn't stop crying. Since the day I shot Trillram, I couldn't stop hating.

Saazbaum. I wished I'd shot him again. Orange. He had led the Princess onto a battlefield. Had he even been human? No human could look on her, and not love–as for the monsters, I would protect her. I wouldn't forgive them, whatever the cost.

Of course, I scrubbed down the Princess's room every day. Changed her saline and parenteral feeding IV bags when required–Castle Cruhteo's infirmary had all we needed.

"Good evening, your Highness. You seem in good spirits today. You seem peaceful."

"Good evening, your Highness. Your dinner tonight will be a nutritious balance of vitamins, amino acids, dextrose and vital minerals. I'm sorry it isn't what you're used to…but, I must protect your health…"

Then I would collapse at the foot of her bed. Bury my face in disinfected white sheets and cling to them so hard they would tear.

And I redressed her wounds. The furrow across her scalp, and the terrible sucking chest wound. If I hadn't been an attentive doctor's son, they would have sent her from coma to grave. (I dreamed of being a doctor when I was small; saving lives, like father. Then I met the Princess, and she was the only one I wanted to save).

Each evening I would sit on the viewing deck, where she had once smiled at me. She had set out for a hostile world, shining with courage. Fighting for peace alone, in our world of hate. Beaten and despised, the only peace I could believe in was where she was.

Her smile was so tender. So trusting. I swore to protect her, with the life she saved, I watched her–as she fell.

I let him hurt her! Tear her tenderness apart! Defile her body with traitor's bullets, and the cursed traitor was me!

All I could see was my gun, but I couldn't die. Only I could protect her...

A sick joke. I was a worm, struggling in a thousand flesh-eating worms, on a world exploded with inner decay. Terra, Mars‒every life they held was not worth her innocent soul. My Princess, my perfect angel. I failed her and she fell. Innocence smashed.

I never let a bedsore defile her skin. It should have burnt me to touch her, wash her…the frozen pain in her white brow should've struck me dead. But I had to protect her. No one could touch her but me…

-0-

-0-

Of course, I broke that vow when my father's ship arrived from Mars, with the Aldnoah revival tank. After I shot Orange, as I stabilised the Princess, I used the Dioscuria's radio to raise the Moonbase.

"Count Saazbaum is mortally wounded. The Terrans are about to take the Landing Castle. I need a FTL relay ready to contact his Majesty at once!"

The Moonbase didn't ask questions. When I reached Saazbaum's Audience Chamber, it was ready. I pressed my hand to the panel with Princess Asseylum's. Then my image on Mars bore an unconscious illusion to her father's bedchamber.

The Emperor howled like Lear over the end of his folly. He said I was _Ultimus Romanorum_; the last noble Martian left.

Then, after the briefest talk with father, I came back to Earth. My darling's blood, filling my nostrils; Terran soldiers preparing to blow down the door. I had to shoot my way out of the Audience Chamber in the Tharsis, steal a Sky Carrier, again, and blast the hanger doors open to escape. I made a flying visit to the nearest half-evacuated town, forcing a terrified doctor to connect my Princess to a portable ventilator and blood transfusion. Then, I took her to rest in Castle Cruhteo, against the arrival of a real doctor.

Father looked just as I remembered, with his scraggly white beard and Cambridge tweeds. After developing techniques of genetic engineering too revolutionary to be advanced in the UK, he had defected to Mars, (he always said), in the fine tradition of Burgess, Maclean and Philby. He had developed the revival tank and written the book on Aldnoah activation. I could hardly imagine how he had found time to fall in love with my mother, in his life of frantically mounting achievement, and he never spoke of her. She died of an illness in the chaos following Heaven's Fall. The lost pendant I had given the Princess was hers.

He took three days to save my Princess's life. On the third day (He always focused to the soul on his work; since I was a child, he never let me disturb him), I asked, would the Princess remember everything?

"Hard to say. This has never been tried with a human, after all. The tank will regrow damaged tissue from her original DNA. Repairs to the lung, ribs, a complete new heart, after two cardiac arrests–that life-support fluid will keep her going through the switch. As for the brain…oxygen starvation is the killer. I'm repairing it physically, cell by cell. Electronically, her mind should rebuild itself, from the undamaged regions. If she turns out a vegetable–it's your own fault."

"I'm…I'm sorry, Father."

"Cheapest word…you saved Saazbaum's life? _Now?_ Nobody else in the solar system could be so much of a fool! Anyway…it took me five years, to adapt this device to human biochemistry. The extinct Versian aliens backed-up their brain states _via_ quantum entanglement. That's going to be the Mk-2 revival tank. They could survive total brain destruction…yet, their civilisation still perished."

"Father…did you implant me with Aldnoah genes? I suppose, if you did, then mother's pendant wasn't your only gift to me. I'm sorry I lost it. But, why–?"

"Forget the pendant, and use that third-rate head for once!" He snapped, "If your Activation Factor had been exposed before now, we'd both have been killed. I only meant to announce the fruit of my research when any nonsense about war had blown over. Well, this war will end, with Mars and Earth united. It doesn't matter whether Vers or UFE flies the flag. So long as those Orbital Nincompoops are dealt with."

"Father? Are you…?"

"My boy, I've been planning this since I saved Saazbaum's life. Without his influence, I could never have become the Emperor's Physician. You'd never have been Assyleum's little companion." He grinned. Tapped the green tank where my Princess floated, naked, "Rayregalia isn't going to last the year. His nobles, as you've found, are self-serving thugs. Pirates and parasites. In fact, the very kind of leaders that ran old Earth into the ground for most of history! But Mars can be a fresh start‒a new birth, with the power of Aldnoah. The one who pacifies earth and brings justice to Mars deserves to rule the Galaxy. And what better seal of peace on earth, than the Versian Princess united to a Terran who bears the power of gods?"

I laughed until I cried, which didn't take long. Father gave me his sour look above the top of his spectacles.

"I…the Princess…?"

"Rayregalia signed off your engagement before we left Mars. He needs an heir, and you‒" A very sour look, "‒are the best I could make for him."

"But the Orbital Knights hate Terrans…"

"While worshipping Aldnoah! Ha! Its power was never meant to stay on Mars." Father's eyes shone with unnatural vision, "Before I die, Mars will be ruled by a Terran Emperor, from earth. And humanity will be ready for Aldnoah, one day, when they've finally grown up. Every man will bear the power of the gods. Good enough for you?"

"…Father. I couldn't even protect the girl I love."

"Hmph. Possibly becoming an Emperor will help with that?"

Yes. Like a forgotten dream, or a new-conceived symphony, the future opened before my eyes. It was the only way. It had to be true.

"Father, thank you!"

I clasped his hand, grinning in his stony face. I would fulfil his trust. Destroy the corrupt nobility who had tortured me and shot my Princess. Rescue the Martian people they had deceived and oppressed. Make the world of Asseylum's dream. A new world, worthy to lie beneath her soft feet.

I couldn't save her. But I would protect her forever. If I had to hammer this world into peace, until this world was smashed to pieces...it would be my punishment. It would be justice.


	3. Lies and Compromise

**Castle Reiner, Calagary, Canada**

Before the Princess even woke, we had moved to Count Reiner's Landing Castle in North America. Father could vouch for his loyalty; he was practically Count Cruhteo with glasses. I was already a knight; with three more months of front-line combat and lone raids, I would be a Royal Duke.

I was returning from the final sack of Cheyenne Mountain when Father told me she was awake. I ran the Tharsis up to the infirmary. Vaulted out, hugged the nurse, raced to her bedside.

"Inaho-San?"

That gentle voice. Silence broken; her eyes open. I fell to my knees.

"Slaine? Is…is that you?"

Had four months changed my eyes more than hers? Her eyes were caught in pain, clouded with fear; but she was still Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia, who I lived and smiled for. Fought, screamed and killed for. All for her.

"Your Highness. Forgive me..."

"Slaine, where is Inaho? The Terran boy…?" At that name, something shone in her eyes that I had never seen, and my heart dropped out of me.

Orange. The boy whose hand my trusting Princess had held, before I blew his brains out.

In her kindness and grace, she must have…cared for him. Smart and brave enough to take out Martian Kataphracts, he had protected her‒no! He put her in danger! Shot me down when I tried to fly to her; made my Princess fight for Terra and almost die. He was the enemy! What could I have done but shoot him?

I bowed my head. My Princess wept and wept. Because of me. Even in her gracious heart, could mercy exist for my sins?

She finally asked again, and I lied.

"It was Count Saazbaum, your Highness. I was only in time to avenge your wounds, and bring you to safety. Please. Forgive me."

"Slaine!" The Princess surged up, tumbling from her bed. Her legs were still weak, but she was ready to crawl, to me‒I caught her in my arms. She held me, fervent and cold as death.

"Oh, Inaho….oh, Slaine, I'm sorry! On Tanigeshima, I was sure the one in the Sky Carrier was you, coming to protect me. But Inaho shot the Carrier down…we had to leave so quickly, I told myself, I couldn't be sure….but I simply couldn't bear to think Inaho had hurt you, you were both so precious to me! Oh, Inaho…if I'd never come to earth, you would have lived! No one would have died…even if I die, Slaine, how could I ever be forgiven–?"

"Princess!" I pulled back, gripped her shoulders as she quaked, "The traitors who hurt you began the war! You always fought for peace‒even if it was impossible, you never gave up. I saw you, I've always seen…forgive me!" I drew my arms back, hid my face, "I spoke out of turn. Highness, I failed you, I shouldn't‒!" I was sobbing. Even as her gentle arms embraced me to the heart. Smelling of sweat and disinfectant, when she should have smelt of roses and sky.

Her eyes were so pure. Blue shards of the heaven I longed to never leave‒but they shone with tears of guilt. Our heaven-born innocence was gone.

"Slaine...thank you. For saving me."

"No, I‒!"

"Hush. You saved me." Golden hair covered my face. I felt her sobbing breaths, "Oh, Slaine, don't leave me. Do we not need each other?"

Yes. I would protect her life, though the heavens should fall. Protect whatever innocence was left. I had to be beside her, with the power to protect; she had to trust me. How would her soul bear it, to hear her last living friend was a killer? For her peace, I had to lie; that was how it had to be. We had to be together, to resist a universe of horror. In these soft, trembling arms, I would finally be warm. Loved. Safe.

-0-

-0-

"Tell me, Terran. How is it that the rabble already know of Saazbaum's treachery? If you've been spreading dishonourable, demoralising words, be sure his Majesty will hear of it."

Count Reiner and I were waiting in the corridor outside his Audience Chamber, where the Princess, with my father, was giving the Emperor a full account of her survival. I'd never met Reiner himself, but a month ago one of his Barons had flown in to check the situation of Japan. I had identified myself only as Cruhteo's servant, told the Baron of his betrayal and fall. Then shaved bits off his Kataphract with the Tharsis, until the threat to my sleeping Princess fled.

Reiner was looking on me as if my existence was an insult to everything decent and honourable. I met his gaze.

"I have revealed nothing confidential to your men, my lord. Anything my father has done was certainly with his Majesty's consent. Your soldiers–and I've never served with a more loyal and disciplined force–have only expressed some frustration to me that Saazbaum was not denounced four months ago, after his defeat at Novosibirisk."

"Foolish boy. Count Saazbaum was his Majesty's most trusted advisor. Publishing his failures and treachery would threaten the standing of the nobility–of the Imperial family itself! Do you understand what that means?"

"I care less for my life than for the Imperial family's honour, my lord. However, their safety can only be ensured by the exposure of Saazbaum, and his surviving confederates. I would judge it expedient for the Orbital Knights to prove their own honour, by casting the unworthy out."

"Yes," It was obvious who Reiner was thinking of throwing to the wolves, "You know, I think it must have been Count Cruhteo, the highest Royalist of Vers, who actually saved the Princess Royal. Gave his life to do so, in fact! That would certain protect the Imperial family's dignity, dispelling any doubts that their unlucky choice of advisors may have stirred up. Of course, a Terran servant, however supposedly loyal, couldn't have played more than a minor role."

I bowed my head. Reiner sneered in triumph. Sometime later, my Princess emerged from the Audience Chamber with father. We both dropped down, but she wheeled to me. Commanded me to rise. Her delicate chest was heaving.

"Sir Slaine, Your father told us that Count Cruhteo…hurt you. He said you were prepared to die, rather than risk revealing my survival to traitors." I bowed my head again.

"Cruhteo was the highest of Royalists!" Reiner spluttered, "Absurd to suspect him of being a traitor!"

"When Count Saazbaum hid his treachery, Lord Reiner? When Count Cruhteo, with every other Knight, had attacked this planet and massacred its people, against my express wishes, and his Majesty's?" Reiner grovelled. My Princess had had suffered like me, these four months; her manner was somewhat more direct, "But Slaine, why didn't you tell my Grandfather of this before now?"

"I was most concerned with your safety, Highness, and I hoped to reveal nothing that would cast aspersions on Count Cruhteo's memory. Even if tragically misguided by deception, he was an honourable, devoted servant of your Highness to the end."

My Princess touched her mouth, eyes bright with adoration. Yes, yes, yes, every shock and stroke was worth it! Even Reiner looked grudgingly impressed.

"The late Count Cruhteo's heir must hear of this conduct. I am certain he will be grateful, Slaine. As am I, for everything you've done…" Slightly flushed, my Princess went to wheel herself away. Reiner protested that surely no one else should know–Saazbaum _and_ Cruhteo disgraced, the reputation of the Imperial family–! "On the contrary, I mean for all Vers to hear of this. They must know, though poor Cruhteo may be dead, that loyalty and devotion did not die with him! His Majesty is of the same mind. As for the Imperial honour, it is my own charge to safeguard that."

"As it is mine." I knelt again, and she smiled on me. She could still smile. Everything was going to be alright.

"And most certainly mine!" Reiner blustered, "In honour of your Highness's recovery, I hereby offer the Imperial family half the former state of Colorado! And my prayers that his Majesty will know his trustworthy friends." He gave my father, who hadn't yet spoken, a venomous look.

"Well…thank you. Slaine, you and Count Reiner will have to tell me all about this 'Colorado', and what might be done for the people there." Reiner had wiped out most of them personally in his Kataphract, but neither of us was about to tell her that.

After we had escorted the Princess to her quarters, and Count Reiner had hurried off to make good his promise, I took a stroll with father.

"The Emperor…?"

"Doesn't trust Reiner, never will. How could he trust that mob, after Cruhteo and Saazbaum? You handled that business with Cruhteo rather well, actually."

"Thank you, father."

"Anyway, to protect his control on Earth, and his granddaughter, Rayregalia wants an heir from outside the thirty-seven clans. Someone with impeccable loyalty. And, to repair the damage that the expose of his closest advisers certainly will do him, a popular hero with the masses."

"That's what he told you?"

"That's what I told him."

In the four years since I'd last seen him, I hadn't realised that father had grown so powerful. He's always been distant, climbing far above even my dream–demanding without words what I thought I could never obtain. But as we walked through Castle Reiner's hangars and control rooms, it wasn't my father the soldiers of Vers were looking at.

I had risen to knighthood, by rescuing the Princess Royal. They knew I had driven a UFE expedition from Japan single-handedly, and every other interloper who might have threatened her. Since arriving in America, I had been at the forefront of battle; after Novosibirisk, many Counts had hardly dared leave their Castles for months. Their eyes held curiosity, even awe. Father was smiling. I had everything I wanted. All it took was some pain, some bullets and one lie.

"Father…how did you ask mother to marry you? I mean…um, or maybe I should spend more time with her Highness first, or, um, court her…."

"Just ask her tomorrow. Her grandfather will warn her in advance."

-0-

-0-

The next day, after she had spoken with her grandfather on Mars, I did the bravest act a wretch like me could do. I went to her room, bent my knee before her wheelchair, and asked for Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia's hand.

"Well..." She feigned thought, with a smile pure as our childhood, "You _are_ the heroic knight who rescued me from death. Who woke me from eternal sleep…and did you not already see me unclothed?"

"Father did. I never looked, I swear…"

My glorious Princess. After everything we'd suffered, she could laugh.

"You're so sweet, Slaine. Yes. Yes, I do."

I kissed her outstretched hand; it smelt of rosewater, at last. Glanced up. She was smiling, through tears on each ivory cheek. Was it joy? Regret? Pity? But even if we were pawns in our fathers' hands, all I could feel was the wonder of a dream.

My Princess was finally with me. Perhaps Orange had protected her, for his own ends. But I would save her. Give her everything she wanted.

"Highness. Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia…I swear to you now, I will love and protect you while breath is in me. Your breath, since the day you saved me." My Princess blushed faintly, murmured that I was too kind, "And I promise you‒we will find peace together."

"We both need have of it." She held onto my hand. Yes, it was pity for me in her eyes. "I won't leave you again, Slaine. You won't have to suffer alone anymore, for my sake…you can tell me what Cruhteo did to you, or anything…"

(I swore I would protect her. Not tell her how it hurt, how scared I was I would die...)

"You were with me, Highness; I could bear it because of you. And I mean to allow nothing of the kind in your future kingdom. I mean to change Vers, Highness, and root out the injustice that let selfish nobles begin this war. If you're with me, there is nothing we cannot do."

"Yes. My knight." Her smile only lasted a moment, "But, Slaine, I can't tell anyone that the attempt on my life was planned on Mars. Grandfather made me promise him. But he said he wanted peace...I can't even say what I did at Novosibirisk!"

"Thousands of Versians were captured or killed in the defeat at Novosibirsk, Highness; Castles Saazbaum, Cruhteo, and Femianne have fallen. The truth that Saazbaum plotted this war will not stop it now. Forgive my boldness…but may I discuss what we must do, for peace?"

She nodded, still blushing. Heart swollen, I told her we had to lie.

I thought, almost hoped, she would refuse. But Saazbaum's bullets had struck deep; more than her limbs were still frail. Only her bright soul was vivid as ever‒her longing for peace only more desperate. For her own sake, I led her pure dreams into darkness.

But each sin was mine, never hers. My innocent fallen angel. Both of us had fallen, but only one could be damned.


	4. Bought in Blood

The Imperial palace of Vers was built to contain an empire of ten thousand years; half the hallways and chambers are seldom or never used. So Asseylum and I spent nearly as much time exploring as we did learning about birds and animals. Whether she was racing ahead of me with her hair flying back, or laughing as I taught her hopscotch, skirts flying about her ankles–every day showed something new and wonderful.

During long commendation ceremonies (the Counts on Mars might receive one for as much as erecting a public lavatory, or the polish of their soldiers' brass buttons), she would pass the time smiling at me in secret, until my heart hammered like a bird against a cage.

"Don't tell anyone," She whispered to me, once, at we were leaving one event, "But I dream that we won't need such ceremonies, or endless troop reviews, when I'm Empress. We might have a place to talk of new ideas, like a university. Or even hold a ball, with all the dancing and music you spoke of, Slaine...oh, your stories give me so many impossible dreams!"

"W-what could be impossible for you, Princess? You'll be a wonderful Empress, I know it! I'll do my best, to support you, somehow-"

"Support? Her Highness? How will you accomplish that, Terran?"

I'd spoken too loud. As the sneering Viscount bowed and left, the nobles walking past us chuckled. I hung my head. Then the Princess took my hand and asked, might I teach her this Terran dancing in private?

I'd been certain my Princess would love to hear about dancing, but I knew nothing about how to do it. I hardly dared to touch her–but I did. I stammered, shuffled and stood on her toes, but she only laughed. She couldn't tell me what I would be when she was Empress, because neither of us knew. But afterward she wrapped us both in a great half-fallen curtain, and we rested together in our nest, without words. Listening to the voices of distant Mars, in a tiny palace of our own.

I knew it couldn't last, couldn't possibly be more than this–but it was a wonderful day. Couldn't I be happy with that?

In her troubled moods, my Princess might sit in her late mother's room. He eyes would flicker over the well-dusted evening gowns and jewellery.

"Do you remember your mother, Slaine?"

"…only light hair, and a voice, Highness. But I have father...oh, I'm sorry..."

"Don't be troubled. If my poor father had lived, I'm sure he would have had no more time for me than Grandfather, or your father for you. But mothers must be different."

(Distracted as the Emperor was, he showed love to his Princess whenever he could, and even absent-minded fondness for me. Father's concern was different; he made sure I was working hard at my job, and if I wasn't, he would know why).

"Slaine? Were there a great many lives lost on Earth, in Heaven's Fall?"

"I…don't know. Sorry…"

"It's alright," She sighed, "Sorry for asking such a thing."

"Would you like to learn about the albatross, Highness?"

My Princess. Such understanding even then; such compassion. I didn't just teach her about animals because she loved them. There was so much in human deeds that her royal innocence could not or should not have understood.

There was one morning when we sneaked out of the palace, heavily wrapped up against the cold. I was risking my neck, but she asked very sweetly. We hid from the bluejacket soldiers; only the maroon third-class workers noticed us, and they said nothing.

Constructed in haste, everything in Mars city needed repairs. Work parties everywhere were fixing roads and transport units; hundreds of black specks crawled across the dome that shielded us from duststorms and UV. I'd heard the attempts at farming beyond the domes were a slow death sentence. Even in the dome, iron oxide dust was everywhere. No air treatment could take the scent of blood from every brick and fabric.

Maintaining the plankton farms, water reclamation and Aldnoah gravity system would've taken a kingdom's labour. But ambitious Counts never stopped proposing new land development or building schemes; far more than Mars had resources to complete. We didn't know that then. But we could see the black, half-finished buildings, and the workers who stood shivering around them, shadowed and hopeless around the eyes.

My Princess wanted to know what they ate, why couldn't they wear more clothes, and what were the black marks on their skin? I said I would talk to them. But my accent marked me as a Terran; we barely escaped before they started throwing stones. I fell as we ran and got a mouthful of blood-red dust.

My Princess, born to rule a world of hunger; cares and burdens lived behind that angelic smile. But she could smile, because she thought peaceful trade with Earth would cure every ill of her people, from the highest to the low. She truly believed–how could I not believe? If she ever doubted, I cheered her on, and she smiled for me. Father never did that; how could he care for me, when I was useless to him? The only place I might ever have was with her. I would serve her, somehow–become an advisor, or her bodyguard, or save her from assassins, or something. Someday. If my father had done so much, if humans had built a kingdom on Mars, how could I think that anything was impossible?

We were both disillusioned now; we had seen the true corruption of Vers. But I wouldn't run from it. I would never leave her again. Protect her. Make both our dreams reality.

-0-

-0-

My Princess spoke to her people a week later; this time the Moonbase transmitted her words. Father hadn't come from Mars alone. The Moonbase was retaken in one night, not by Katapracts, but loyal Martians in the same uniform the traitors had dishonoured. Surprise was justly complete. Father supervised the Moonbase commander's interrogation and obtained the names of every principle conspirator. I never asked for details about his methods.

That morning, the Emperor gave a short broadcast. He confirmed that the Princess was alive. She had been hidden for three months because her Terran assassins had been aided by Martian traitors. His granddaughter's words were to be taken as his; the words of her personal knight were to be taken as hers. Even through hologram, his world-grasping spirit was clearly broken. So much for Rayregalia Vers Rayvers.

Every Martian in the solar system was watching for my Princess on a screen. Her live audience was Count Reiner and every soldier in his Castle. The crowd that erupted into whispers, when a Terran-born teenager pushed Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia's wheelchair onto the stage. And that was nothing beside the reaction when my Princess sat before the Versian flag, and said that her personal knight, Sir Slaine Troyard, would speak first.

I faced the crowd. For five years, the eyes and words of such Martians had pierced me. I'd been so weak, but I'd come through war, torture, betrayal‒finally, I just didn't care. And before we mounted that stage, my Princess had pressed my hand and assured me; I had my own strength. I could make people like me. As a commoner and Terran, any such talent had been smothered. But now I was raised up to shine. Alive, like that day my Princess kissed fiery life through my heart.

"Soldiers and citizens of Mars. I stand here with the blessings of Princess Assylum Vers Allusia. I was born here on Terran, where our beloved Vers was called a nation of slaves. Dull serfs, trapped under a bloated nobility. I am here to tell you they are wrong!"

I drove a fist to my heart‒the hall was silent. My scalp began to tingle.

-0-

-0-

"From a common soldier, a Terran, I have been raised to a Knight! A wielder of Aldnoah! The protector of her Highness, Princess Asseylum; a greater honour than words can express. And given for nothing but my duty! For the honour of shedding my blood, for the Imperial family! My citizenship was bought in blood, like the first pioneers of our sacred kingdom. Like each one of you, whatever your outward rank may be, who bears the true spirit of Mars in his chest! My noble lords, servants, soldiers‒Carrier pilots, as I was! All have ennobled the blood they spent, for victory!"

There was chaos; no noble had ever praised commoners this way. Half of them were cheering, the rest were calling for my head.

"Presumption!" Count Reiner shouted at me, "Do you already presume to confer nobility and honour, upstart Terran?"

"Milord Reiner. As His Majesty's servant, I offer you this honour; the heartfelt thanks of an Emperor that you have fulfilled his dream. And the thanks of every commoner on Mars, freed from grubbing in red dust for their bread, by your conquests. I speak no empty, deceitful words! A fleet of ships is being prepared, with funds from the royal treasury, to carry a hundred thousand Versian colonists to Earth."

Stunned silence. Soldiers cut off from families on Mars, ever since Heaven's Fall, could not believe their ears. And I knew every barracks on Mars itself would exploding with joy. I pressed on.

"The water and soil of this blue world will go to strengthen our noble kingdom. Land enough for all, and first spoils to the conquerors!" Now there were cheers, "All who show, and have shown, the courage of Martians will have land and honour! While all the traitors‒who threw our comrades' lives away at Novosibirsk, who had the inhumanity to harm my Princess...they will know justice."

That day, three Counts and six lesser nobles had breathed their last. They had been ready for attack on their Castles. But not for the serfs who would serve their meals and clean their salons to drag them from their beds and shoot them. I understand Father and his associates had no difficulty finding infiltrators. Eight of ten Martians commoners couldn't conceive of killing a Noble, but the other two dreamt of nothing else. They wanted freedom from a barren world; from Nobles who cared nothing for their lives. They longed for simple human respect. Believe me, I knew.

So don't imagine I only cared for the Princess. I cared for every common Martian, racist mass-murderers that they largely were, who had been treated as a dog and made into something worse, like me. They were my true people, suffering in my sight; I longed to give them everything they longed for. I would be the saviour they needed‒Saazbaum had been right about that. I would save the nation to save my Princess. Do what Saazzbaum and Orange never could.

I read the highlights from a list of several hundred new honours for courage in battle. The Nobles had to get the lion's share of course‒but I concluded with the abolition of all titles held by purged traitors. All their assets would be given to the poor on Mars, the loyal on earth. The cheering went on and on. Even Reiner and his barons applauded justice on the traitors, not thinking what their future held.

The colonists from Mars would be a Royalist power base; my power base. With the riches of earth, astute commoners might gain more power than the Counts–complacent fools who couldn't bring themselves to oppose their precious Emperor. Couldn't imagine their standing gone, until it was.

After that, I told them my story, with impolitic details omitted. Princess Asseylum had never been at Novosibirisk; she certainly hadn't deactivated Castle Saazbaum. It had been in the Castle Cruhteo massacre that Saazbaum had shot my Princess. She had fled, found me half-dead from torture. Revived me as a knight of Aldnoah, with a single kiss.

With the Tharsis, I had defeated Saazbaum (hadn't I shot him down?) and guarded my Princess against the world in that ruined castle, all those months. I told the truth of what I had meant, felt and suffered. Reiner couldn't meet my eye. I heard my Princess barely hold back a sob.

"–I flew out alone, to rescue Princess Asseylum. I saved her life, but did not save her from harm. I implore your forgiveness. But I dedicate my life again, today, to my Emperor, my Princess and my country. To nothing less than your total victory, I swear to you all! All I ask is to give my life beside you, and as Versians serving Vers together, we will root out every traitor! Win our people the victory their struggle deserves! If we only stay true, to all that is best in our nation–every single one of us will have victory." I bowed my head. The Castle rang with the cheering. "You honour me. I now hand over to her Highness, Asseylum Vers Allusia."

I stepped back. Expressionless, the Princess faced the waiting throng.

"People of Mars. My people. I came to this planet seeking peace. Thanks to warmongers and traitors, that peace became an impossible dream. But a new peace is before our eyes, thanks to your loyalty and sacrifice. In the name of my grandfather, Emperor of Vers, we will make peace with the Terrans in three months."

The hubbub quickly rose to cries of anger. Would Novosibirsk and Castle Femmiane be unavenged? Would we leave whole Terran nations alive to take revenge? To breath oxygen that was ours by right?

"Hear me, please! I know how hard you've fought, all you've endured! And I must apologise to you all!"

My Princess bowed her head. The heir of Vers bowed to her people. Every voice died.

"I was struck down, in a mission of peace. For my sake, you have caused earth to know my pain. My grandfather's pain, in their broken children. My beloved knight's pain, in their loved ones lost forever. All our nation's pain, since Heaven's Fall, as their cities and lives were smashed apart."

She fought back tears–in front of all Vers, she took my hand. Every soldier looking on recalled desolations and massacres that seemed suddenly less righteous than they had. Oh, my Princess! Her eyes broke a nation of iron with their compassionate agony.

"Justice has been done. The pride of traitors is trampled down. But no traitor will ever crush my hope, for a peace of justice and safety! Where no child, wife or loyal soldier will ever suffer what we have!"

She almost rose from her chair with passion. There were cheers to make the planet shake.

_"Long live the Emperor!"_

_"Long live Princess Asseylum!"_

"We will bring Versian honour and civilisation to earth, as the riches of her seas and soil strengthen us! Let us be magnanimous in victory‒the ones who did this to me have been chastised enough! We can show forgiveness, for our wounds...our comrades, lost. And, all Terrans who have suffered in this war...we share your sorrow…" She couldn't go on, but it was enough.

_"Three cheers for the Princess!"_

_"Three cheers for Sir Slaine‒!"_

-0-

-0-

I managed to wheel her behind the flag before she collapsed onto my jacket.

"Highness…you never said your assassins were Terrans. You never truly lied, just as you wished. If we told the truth about the war, that all those deaths were useless…all Versian honour, order and morality die as well, and this useless war never ends."

"I'm sorry, Slaine…I'm simply afraid, for the people of earth."

"They may live as slaves, Highness, but you saved all their lives today."

"I saved your people. I'm glad…"

I felt her smile. My happiness was finally complete. Nothing could have made me tell her how little I cared whether the Terrans lived or died. I barely wished to think about them, or Kaizuka Inaho, or my Father. He was doing so much in the shadows, meeting me weekly to guide my every move towards the crown. I had never felt further from him.

It was the shivering, plankton-fed serfs of Mars that I would set my mind on, as I covered my hands and heart in Earth's blood. The beaten, despised soldiers of Vers that had never known peace. I would give them a new world, a kingdom of justice and freedom. Make a home, with my Princess, where peace could exist.

"Slaine?" My Princess whispered, "No matter what has happened, what is yet to come…I truly love you. You've always been the most caring, lovely man I've known."

It was our last freedom left. And we thought true love was enough, even if we had to lie.


	5. Peace and War

"‒'bought in blood' was _good_. Maybe half the Nobles think you're a competent upstart who can't as yet be removed. Only the other half want you dead."

"Ambition, envy, contempt. They hold themselves above humanity, without one higher feeling between them."

"My agents have identified immediate threats ‒"

"Have them purged as traitors or disgraced, as soon as possible. A clean sweep of the nobility will have to wait until after the war."

In a secret, bug-free room in Castle Reiner, father was telling me what Sir Slaine Troyard, Royal Knight of Vers, would be engaged in for the next month. I had a duel to win, supporters to promote. And one thing father wanted I wouldn't do.

"‒you'll have to deflect their hate from you, after this purge. The Versian boot still needs a face to grind, and the Terrans are it. We'll use a looser term like 'Old Humanity', and crush or spare as many as we need."

"I was oppressed as a Terran, father. Tortured. How could I throw a planet into that hell?"

"You have to! To prove you're a Martian now, for the world's rebirth‒!"

"I'm still fighting for peace, Father! Hatred would be a weapon we could never control."

"I suppose you'd know?"

I glared at him. After seventeen years, I finally made him flinch.

"Yes, I know about hatred Father. I hate it. I mean to bring Terrans into Versian society. This is for the Princess. You will not change this."

Father stared back over his glasses, eyes cold with unthinkable patience.

‒0‒

‒0‒

It was a busy three months. We had to crush strongpoints and root out partisans all over our territory, without the mass killings of the early war. Japan was reoccupied, and Vers forces pushed the UFE out of east Russia. Siberia and central Russia were out of reach, but Count Orga had the west Russian heartland locked down. The fighting in China was fierce, but the Counts there had broken the last open resistance before the deadline.

And we had to rebuild infrastructure all over Earth, with Terran labourers. As they shared the hardship we had endured on Mars, and in space, they would share our new worldwide kingdom. That's what I promised them in my first speech in New Washington. I promised the common Martians that their rank would rise as Terrans took the lowest place. And I told the Orbital Knights that Old Humanity was too far beneath our notice to be worth exterminating.

I made a lot of speeches, a lot of promises–it was so wonderful to be listened to. Though I fought two duels and survived three assassinations, no Noble could sweep me aside. The commons knew where I'd come from; I knew how they had suffered. Whether at the forefront of battle or pushing through pensions for injured soldiers, I did all I could for my adopted people. Can you imagine what it's like to be loved by a nation that used to despise you?

Only my Princess was silent, and never free from sorrow–but I loved her all the more for her suffering, and so did her people. She still had to introduce and stand beside me, but there was no more need for politics to dirty her perfect hands. Sometimes she visited hospitals, factories and building projects, with a handpicked guard and every possible precaution. Her simple, caring words lightened every Martian spirit, and I made sure she was safe.

"Dear Slaine…I'd like us live in Japan, after our marriage. You held it after poor Count Cruhteo died, so it's all our personal territory now…and perhaps it holds some pleasant memories for me?"

And a thousand nightmares for me; but I started building her a mansion near Tokyo. Whatever made her happy, I would do.

"I hereby create Sir Slaine Troyard Duke of Olympus. I am also happy to announce, with the consent of his Majesty, my Grandfather…that we are engaged to be married."

The only misery of those days was to barely see my Princess outside official events. The Nobles had too much autonomous power to be left alone; I was hopping across the globe every week for quiet chats that might keep thousands of Terrans alive for another month. Several Counts actually began listening to me; and Counts as diverse as Mazuurek, Zebrin and Orga. Some preferred me to their old rivals, but most had begun to grasp what Versian future needed.

"Power will not tempt us to self-interest. Toil will not make us despair. We are a new birth for all humanity; Aldnoah has freed us from the impossible! Freed us to protect all that is innocent and precious from the betrayers, with real honour, and real unity! That is the Vers I believe in. And I believe in you‒her people." And as the applause thundered, I knew they were beginning to believe in me.

And whenever my growing political wits faltered, father was there. Understanding all; offering a quiet suggestion of devastating effect.

‒0‒

‒0‒

The Dorsum Kataphract is certainly the least glamorous weapon of the Versian arsenal, but no less vital to the conquest of Earth than any. Its function is to lay energy fences, mile on mile. As domes confined the cities of Mars, every city and labour camp we controlled on Earth had to be fenced in. With so many Terrans, still, and so few Martians, we had to concentrate their population under our eyes to even control our occupied territory.

No, the Counts hadn't considered what the forcibly displaced Terrans would eat. If myself, Viscountess Rastapodopolis and Count Massingherry, two true unsung heroes, hadn't assigned thousands of Versian and Terran officials to organise food supply, the death toll would have almost been worse than Earthfall.

Our Kataphracts might have been undefeated since Novosibirisk, but we had barely enough men to directly occupy half the world. Count Keteratesse's faction believed we had a choice between exterminating the rest of the Terrans, and forcing them to swear allegiance to Vers. Count Orga's opposing faction thought that sounded like one choice, but I lent my voice to the assimilation party.

The unoccupied Terrans, outwardly, chose allegiance over annihilation, and gave every sign of disarming. Some nations even offered active collaboration. Ten months after Operation Earthfall, though Resistance attacks were still everywhere, only parts of Russia, China and Central Asia were outside our occupation or influence.

We even started exchanging prisoners with the free Terrans. When she saw Princess Asseylum alive, Eddelritto burst into tears. I gave up ten U.E. soldiers for her. I would have given hundreds to watch my Princess run to embrace her, in that ruined Siberian town.

"Eddelritto! Oh, it feels like miracles can still happen!"

"Highness, I've been cold, but safe! It was you I was scared for, I heard‒"

With a sob, my Princess buried her handmaiden in fur coat. Then stood, dried her eyes, and gave me a shining smile. "My white knight. Our knight. Thank you." Behind her, lean Russian soldiers watched her hatefully. I took note of their faces.

Eddelritto glanced at me gingerly. "Sir Slaine. I'm most sorry that I spoke ill of you, for being a T-t-terran‒"

"Watch your words!" Snapped my new adjutant, Jescombe, "Duke Slaine is a noble of Vers!"

"'Old human', is more the current phrase than 'Terran', Ma'am." Harklight, my more tactful and efficient adjutant, added, "His Grace has transcended that birth, as we have ours."

Eddelritto certainly looked shocked to be bawled out by a third class citizen‒effectively a bond serf, until I had seized on his qualities. Jescombe certainly wasn't as smart as Harklight, but he would have run over his grandmother to keep me in the ascendant.

"Highness…has Vers changed, while I've been gone?" Eddelritto whispered.

Not enough, little 'Ritto. Not until the feudal aberration that hurt my Princess can be recognised no more.

_‒0‒_

‒0‒

"Do you know why I dreamed of peace between Mars and Terra, Slaine? I wanted everybody to truly accept you in society, and not let your birth cover up the man you are inside. I'm actually quite selfish, aren't I?"

"Not at all, Highness…" We were flying back to America. She was sitting next to me.

"You'll have to call me Asseylum soon." A quick smile, "It's like a dream that you're a Duke, and a Terran, who hasn't ever forgotten the people of Earth. I believe you've truly begun to make Martians see them as…"

"…Fourth-class citizens, rather than monkeys."

My Princess laid her hand on mine.

"Slaine. You've given me your precious pendant, dear Eddelritto safe, even my very life! You're working to bring the peace of my dreams…I've realised you've always been giving to me. Please, my knight. You've become so strong, but there must surely be more help I could give you! I could speak to the Orbital Knights…?"

"Princess. Your words to the Martian citizens give them a spirit and joy more precious than anything else. You needn't ever be involved in politics or strategy again; I know they pain you. Just, t-that you should be beside me…" I faltered, swallowed "Princess, when I crashed on Mars, you gave me life. Everything I have is already yours."

I stared out the window, at blue skies. I hadn't the nerve to say, but she'd given me a smile I would joyfully have died for.

Fast asleep, Eddelritto's head stirred in Asseylum's lap. My Princess smoothed her hair; gave me a mischievous look.

"It might not be long before I can give you a child…"

I lost all self-control. We were gentle enough to leave our chaperone asleep…but Asseylum's lips were all I remembered, and more. I felt the passion of her royal heart. The love that made one outcast boy an Emperor, and lifted him within a breath of heaven. And I felt the sadness that I would die trying to make her forget…

‒0‒

‒0‒

The first nuke went off four weeks after the armistice. Castle Reiner's air defences had swatted down a dozen missiles in the war's first days; the fatal bomb was left in a supply van by Terran labourers. Some Knights instantly came down hard on the Terrans. When the next bombs wiped out their Castles, the other Clans fell prey to fear.

I had just left Castle Reiner for New Washington. Asseylum happened to be on a morale-boosting trip to the Moonbase. I flew straight there with a wing of Stygis fighters to bring her back.

"Why, Slaine? Why are they continuing this pointless war? There can only kill innocent Martian people, our people. We promised them peace! Could no one so caring and wise as poor Inaho be left to the Terran people at all?"

She was so innocent. Betrayed by Vers, betrayed by Earth, deceived and exploited by Orange with his calculating kindness. For the tears in her voice, I silently promised to pay back all the Terrans in blood. I asked her to trust me.

"With my life, Slaine. With my royal authority, my hopes and all myself."

I took her in my arms, and stared away at the bright, merciless stars.

We lost three more Castles to suitcase nukes–even Castle Selkinas and the Scorching Solis. Earth had to be safe for thousands of colonists by the end of the year. As my Princess wept with Eddelritto, in the flower garden I had made for her, I spoke on her behalf.

"Gallant nobles and citizens of Vers have been slain, by traitors and cowards. Old Humanity has spat on our mercy, abused our grace. I promise you, they will not do so again, for our mercy is at an end! They will suffer justice, every one of them, until no traitor dares to threaten our comrades and our families again!"

I didn't want to do it. Even as beaten slaves, I wanted Earth to live with Vers, in peace. But I couldn't. They couldn't; Operation Earthfall had killed too many for them to forgive. All the lenient occupation policies I'd fought for literally blew up in my face. I had to break the Terrans, and I hated them because they made me do it.

I know father was laughing at me. I hated him and I hated myself, but not enough to change what I did.

I mounted the Tharsis again, my Asseylum's White Knight. I killed a lot of Terrans, in South America and Afghanistan. Not so many beside the five Meteor Bombardments, and all the terror suspects we dragged off the street in every city of the world. There was no shortage of volunteers for the Imperial Security Service, or Terran Occupied Territories Police, no reluctance in their work. Any true Versian or Terran prepared to kill and torture could rise from a slave to a somebody.

Of course, I planned to purge more hostile nobles ‒but before it could be done, the nobles had vanished. Our forces were being thrown back from Novosibirisk again. By Martian Kataphrakts.

Count Saazbaum.

I should've confirmed his death in Castle Saazbaum, but my only thought was to save my Princess. He'd spent nearly a year as a Terran P.O.W. And now his haggard face was on my TV screen.

"For the honour and glory of Vers, we reject the continued rule of Rayregalia Vers Rayvers‒or rather, certain Terrans who have poisoned his mind. Who have seduced his granddaughter into throwing away her honour, for the sake of unnatural lust! We call all people of Vers who value their honour and lives to rally around the rightful monarch‒Lemrina Vers Envers!"

He was smiling. My Princess saw him; listened to the man who shot her say such things. I told her, he wouldn't hurt her again.

"I'm not afraid of him, Slaine," Her face was pale, staring up at me, "You've grown so strong…"

"No, Princess. I won't think myself strong until I kill that traitor myself."

Then I walked away, pulling out my phone and snapping orders to Harklight. Even in the next room of our new Tokyo mansion, I could feel Asseylum's trembling gaze on my back.


	6. The Last Battle

**Castle Troyard, Central Russia**

"Rafia and Zebrin have wiped out the UFE forces in the Kabul district, on their own initiative. Our nobles' lust for their own glory can be an asset to Vers, it seems."

"...can't say I'd considered it in that light, your Grace."

"Understandably; it is another asset that only benefits the nobility."

As Harklight waited beside my desk, in the Landing Castle I had seized from Marycian after his execution as a conspirator, I flicked through holographic reports. Resistance in the Americas had been entirely crushed, and Afghanistan didn't look any worse than the usual, but Russia wasn't looking good. Castle Orga had been attacked again. The rebel Count Chater had destroyed a lone Nilokeras; easy enough when you knew its weak spots. Several UFE ambushes in Siberia; one Versian unit had been overrun when their Kataphract support was lured away, and the few survivors brutally tortured.

"Count Orga plans to drop his Elysium on another refugee camp in response, your grace," Harklight followed my eye, "You might veto him...?" I shook my head wearily.

"So long as the pilot who allowed that ambush is stripped of his knighthood, I'll withhold my veto. We advance too quickly to take prisoners. Our numbers are so low that any Terran is a threat, unless under our eyes in camps or fenced cities. I accept the logic...but I truly hope this is a short war."

"The sentiment does you credit, your grace."

"Not much. Every day Lemrina and Saazbaum remain at liberty, my competence remains in question–and it will be questioned. I reached this height in a single rush. If this war is not short, my fall may be as quick."

"More souls than your own are weighed in that balance, your grace. The commons see in you their hope of change, and ideal of courage, while Saazbaum threw away their lives at Novosibirisk for his mad ambition."

"You know he wanted to reform Vers, for the good of the commons? At least, he said so. Father really found some excellent propagandists to remake us both." I grinned ironically; Harklight actually looked ruffled. "Anyway, what do you think of this report? Saazbaum and the UFE seem prepared to join up south of...Novosibirisk. Klancain and Zebrin tell me it must be a feint. Their forces are weaker than ours; their only hope is to continue with hit-and-run attacks."

"Your grace...as an aggressor and a rebel, in an extremely shaky alliance with the UFE, Saazbaum's legitimacy is most precarious. I would say his only hope is in a short war, a decisive battle, and such a shocking coup as your Grace's death. Even the site of the battle must be intended to draw you out. I would warn you not to recklessly expose yourself, if drawing the rebels into a decisive battle was not also essential for us. Not only for your grace, but for the future of Vers."

"My other self..." Harklight smiled, as I typed a brief dispatch, "Once again, the final battle will be in Siberia."

"May I say, your grace...I am proud to serve a lord who values his people. All the men and women under you would say the same."

'My people'. What wonderful words to hear.

"If only the nobles were so unanimous. How would you like to help rectify that, Harklight? As a knight."

"I...your grace!" Harklight shut his eyes, as if engraving the moment on his heart. "I will repay this."

"No. I will be proud to fight beside you, Sir Harklight."

-0-

-0-

After interminable skirmishing and pursuit, Saazbaum and his four surviving rebel Nobles had joined with the last active U.E. army in Asia. I had ten Kataphracts and Sky Carriers, to end the war–Versians for Vers, united by Saazbaum's threats, and my purpose. Earth would be safe for Martian colonists. Safe for my Princess to live outside a nuclear bunker.

The night before, we assembled in the briefing room of Castle Orga. It took hours before every Nobles was satisfied with his role in the battle, and I could safely dismiss them for some sleep.

"…One last thing, my lords. I discovered this evening that Count Mazuurek was hoping to marry his fiancé when this war was over. He was good enough to show me her picture, in the locket we've often seen him gazing on. In short; I've ordered him to head home tomorrow, and marry her at once."

The Nobles murmured in surprise, while Mazuurek completely failed to disguise his joy. I refrained from mentioning that his intended was a Terran with Versian citizenship.

"Sir Yacoym will take Mazuurek's place on the right," I went on, "All of you; this order expresses my faith in your courage as much as my gratitude for Mazuurek's service. For the greater share of honour, fight your hardest. For the Emperor. For your people. For Vers."

"For my father!" Count Klancain, Cruhteo's son, swept his good arm about, then collapsed into a chair, groaning.

"Count! You're not recovered yet." Mazuurek had barely pulled Klancain out of his damaged Argyre in an inconclusive battle the week before.

"My Kataphract is repaired, your grace! If I die fighting Saazbaum, there's no other end I'd rather meet."

"I'm sorry, Count Klancain. I'm ordering you to return home as well."

"Your grace..." Klancain's eyes were simply very sad, "Don't you owe me something for my support? Can't you leave me even this one thing?"

I walked up to the man who would have probably been the next Emperor‒Asseylum's husband!‒if his father hadn't spent his last hours torturing her rescuer. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"I simply don't want to lose you, Count Klancain. Her Highness would take it badly; she always liked you."

I really didn't want him dead. He was probably a better man than me; I'd never have risen so fast without the Cruhteo family's backing. I wanted to like Count Cruhteo's eldest son. But, alas, I didn't.

-0-

-0-

I had terrible dreams that night. I saw Saazbaum's face–as I had seen him before Novosibirisk. Strength, beneath the marks of terrible loss. Understanding, of all our planet's pain and injustice. He had saved me from Cruhteo. Looked on me as if I was worth something–

_"Oh, Slaine, I expected you'd be worth something to my revenge! You saved me, Slaine."_

_"You killed me, Slaine."_

He was smiling. She was falling, in stream of her blood, I couldn't reach her–

_"How does that feel, Terran?"_

Cruhteo. Hands tearing at my wrists, pain shooting through me, _I couldn't reach her_…I cried out as I woke. But no one heard and I recovered quickly.

Then I dressed and walked out the observation deck. It was still early enough that my tireless Sir Harklight was sat up reading.

"Harklight. I...couldn't sleep."

"Don't be troubled, your grace. You've done more with a lot less."

"I suppose. You don't think I was foolish, this evening?"

"Not at all, your grace. Your compassion inspired the men, and the nobles have always idolised reckless courage."

"Understood; I'll be careful tomorrow. Is that Shakespeare you're reading? Don't most of the Counts ban Terran literature?"

(The sum total of Martian literature, by the way, was the biography and political writings of Emperor Rayregalia. I can still quote the whole thing; it was a flogging offence to be unable to)

"I obtained this book since arriving on Terra, your grace. I hoped to understand the Terran viewpoint a little better."

"Perhaps...anyway, is it _Henry V_? 'We few, we happy few…'"

_"Richard III_, actually."

"Ah. Perhaps my record is closer to his."

"Perhaps, your grace. I read the formal histories of the period as well. He was a young king too, and much maligned. He was no cripple, no tyrant‒no traitor, but betrayed at every turn. He certainly never seduced his Queen for her money."

I smiled, but I thought. In a hundred years, would the world believe I had been a crippled monster? An evil albino, maddened by torture and ambition, entrapping Princess Asseylum to win a throne? Saazbaum was saying it already; how many victims of my rise believed him?

"Harklight, I've no doubt we'll have better success than Richard tomorrow, but after that…I only hope the future will be different from what is past. If I can make up for the suffering I've caused…"

"Yes, your grace. Richard hoped so too, but I believe you mean it."

-0-

-0-

"Your grace…Tokyo! There was a bomb..."

"The Princess. Where is she? WHY DON'T YOU KNOW?"

I cut off the call from Japan. Asseylum didn't answer. I took four tries to dial father's number.

"Yes, not a nuke, but a big one. They're just pulling out the bodies, I understand‒"

"The Princess…" It came out like a sob.

"Oh dear. Well suppose she's dead, Slaine? Are you finally going to crush the man who killed her‒finally face this rotten world without your blond security blanket? Or are you going to curl up and discard all human dignity, like the worthless little crybaby‒?"

I smashed the phone. I fell to my knees and howled, once.

"My lord Slaine…?" I'd never seen Harklight look shocked. The other nobles stood behind him.

I got to my feet, breathing steady, eyes completely still.

"For Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia. We attack. Now!"

-0-

-0-

The last battle was a mess. My Nobles pulled together surprisingly well, but the UFE force had traps prepared in the crags and snow-covered forests. And I'd have collapsed if I'd let any thought enter my mind but Saazbaum's death.

Yacoym's Elysium was pinned down by an Elysium on the rebel side. The universe twisted like fabric where their entropy fields met. Then a well-placed minefield took out the Scandia's leg; mounted on its back, the Electris was forced to leap away.

"Don't tell me to leave the battle!" Rafia shouted at Zebrin, "Not this one!"

"I'll deal with the Terrans!" Orga pounded past them in the Ortygia, "Yacoym, hold your place! Barouhcruz, Zebrin, I leave Saazbaum to you!"

I ground my teeth, as the Octantis raced forward. The Ortygia was smashing down ranks of Aerions. Firing as he advanced, Harklight overpowered a rebel Argyre with the Hershel's barrage. But where was the Dioscuria–?

I barely dodged the Speeding Xanthe, a rocket propelled Kat with single-molecule hardening. Its second pass smashed through a small hill. On its third, it glanced off the Electris' shield, shot away, and vanished into our Nilokeras.

"_En guard_, Troyard!" Count Chater's Kat had a glowing shield, and sent bolts of plasma from its sword. I twisted and leapt over his attack, slashed at his side as I rolled past, then kicked him into a frozen rock face. Then I sped on, without stopping to finish him. "Ugh..face me, Terran dog! I can still fight–!" An explosive arrow blew him to bits.

"Hah!" The Scandia certainly hadn't left the battle.

"Rafia…Rafia, GET CLEAR!"

As Zebrin screamed, the Countess scarcely bailed from her Kat, before a flying black fist smashed it to fire and shrapnel. The Dioscuria had appeared.

"Saazbaum!" Barouhcruz charged in, swinging his supercharged wires, "Your crimes end today, traitor!"

Its shield was up, but the Dioscuria lurched, as the ground beneath it was cut to pieces. Then it leapt away with astonishing agility, and batted the Octantis' torso out of existence.

The black Kataphract loomed over the wrecks, huge as its master's shadow in my mind. I called for Zebrin to stay back, and closed.

My white Tharsis circled faster around his giant machine, faster than missiles. I kicked a snowdrift over him, to pick out the gap in his shield. Dodged the rocket fist. Shot the thruster out, just as Orange would've done.

His shield was back up, but I was behind him; I stabbed into the gap and it was gone. Before I could shoot him, the sword that killed Cruhteo flashed from a black claw, and I leapt back.

"Not bad." His voice rumbled from the Dioscuria, "You may be worthy after all."

I didn't reply. I just had to dodge that sword, get behind him again. Cut him to pieces. I didn't see the warning‒the missile from that ridge‒the Tharsis saw it. But I saw nothing except Asseylum's killer, until it blew my arm off.

"Just as I thought," Saazbaum crowed, "A foolish puppy, with but one thing on his mind!" He knocked down the Tharsis. Slammed a titan knee down on the chest, on me. In terror, I screamed out Asseylum's name.

The sword came up. Flashed about, as Saazbaum cut down Herschel laser drones‒then the Herschel itself cannoned into him.

"Harklight!"

The Dioscuria's sword plunged through the helpless long-range Kataphract. Harklight died in an instant. The Tharsis came up‒I caught that swordarm, smashed it clean off his torso, and then I hit him, again–I don't remember much more, until it was all over.


	7. Beautiful and Damned

"She's alive?"

"Yes, your grace. After you dismissed Count Klancain, he demanded an audience with her Highness, hoping she would reverse your decision. She was returning from Castle Troyard's Audience Chamber at four a.m. yesterday, when your mansion was bombed. She's safe."

I felt…so little relief. I suppose I'd never believed she could be dead. And the weight of failing, again, to protect her still lay heavy on my gut.

My aide, Jescombe, was leading me through the prison we had converted from part of the Novosibirsk bunker complex. Most of the UFE survivors from yesterday's battle were hunched in those stinking cells, fathoms away from sunlight or fresh air. From deeper levels, I could already hear screams, metal striking flesh‒I remembered Cruhteo's eyes, so cold when I was so afraid. I was nearly sick.

"Have that stopped now, Jescombe. No torture, no summary executions. And move the Terran soldiers to a better prison. The Martians with Saazbaum will have to be tried and shot."

"Very well, your grace. I suppose you can afford clemency, after this final victory?"

"Since I can show mercy, I will." I stared at him coldly, "Sir Harklight didn't just obey me, Jescombe, he shared my ideals. If you want to replace him, learn."

"What about me then, Slaine Troyard?" A soft voice drifted from a cell. Asseylum's half-sister was clearly used to barren settings and misery; her posture was slumped, but entirely self-possessed.

"Princess. After living so long on the moonbase, how would you like your own garden? Perhaps in America?"

"Which I could never leave?"

"You'll have anything else you desire. Your freedom…might be not much less than an Empress. You deserve happiness and safety as much as Princess Asseylum, in any case."

"Will you visit me sometimes, Slaine?"

Her smile was silver, almost free from bitterness. Her sister's strength, set in a melancholy temperament…I was strangely fascinated. If Asseylum was a luxuriant garden rose, Lemrina was a flower from a mountainside.

"Certainly, Princess. If you'd agree to receive Princess Asseylum as well."

The smile vanished; she turned away. I went on, to the prisoner at the end of the corridor.

-0-

-0-

He was strapped to a pallet. Thin, haggard, much of his body left stuck to the Dioscuria's wreckage, but alive.

"Good afternoon, Slaine."

"Saazbaum…." I drew my gun. Jescombe stood back.

"Still not ready?" That humourless smirk was the same.

"….maybe you do deserve a trial. All Vers would see you, broken...as you left my Princess. They would see justice. They'd hear how a proud Versian noble joined the Terran rebels he despised, to save his neck."

"Means to an end, my boy," The smirk never wavered, "You should thank me for not seeking to inform her Highness of Kaizuka Inaho's real killer‒"

Her face, as I lied to her, flashed in my mind. I stabbed the gun into Saazbaum's temple.

"WHO KNOWS? Who did you tell?"

"The UFE suspect. But they'd hardly add the death of their greatest pilot to your legendary exploits. Call my silence gratitude, for the day you saved my life."

I lowered the gun. Stared into those shadowed eyes, with all the love and hate inside me.

"That's all you've got left, isn't it? Calling yourself an honourable villain, when your honour serves your villainy. You spared me, to repay my father. You said you cared about Vers and her people…the world finally made sense. I had to save you. You would spare the Princess."

"Orlane was worth ten of her. No, I could kill that ignorant parasite a thousand times‒"

"And she would forgive you! You smashed her dream of peace, her innocent life; but she would bathe your wounds in her tears, right now! You knew you were damned when you shot her. You threw earth into war, Vers into civil strife‒not for honour, for pride and hate! That's all that's left of you, old man!"

"And you, Slaine? Will you forgive me?" I raised the gun. He laughed, "Oh, if only you could see yourself!" I bit back the snarl from my lips. Steadied my breathing, "One fine day, some fine fellow will finish your Princess off at last. You will lose everything, just as I did! But you still can't forgive me. So it goes."

He was still smiling when I shot him in the head. As I turned to Jescombe, my face was calm.

"Come. We have much to do‒"

"SLAINE TROYARD!"

A woman's scream of rage. A Japanese woman‒I dashed out of the cell.

I'd never seen her, but Asseylum had told me all about the Deucalion. And even with hair draped like weeds around a famine-pinched face, Lt Kaizuka Yuki looked like her brother. She clung to the bars of her cell.

"Don't think you've conquered us today, or that you'll ever know peace again! Not you, or that little slag you've got waiting at home. None of us have homes, because of you! Our families, dead, because of you…."

She collapsed into tears. I held Jescombe back.

"This war wasn't my doing. The ones who broke the armistice were you!"

"You'd just have faked another assassination to wipe us out, if we hadn't! As for your dumb Princess…I'd feel sorry for her, if I could. She thought Nao-kun was rather amazing, actually. A real man. Imagine how she'd feel, to know she's sleeping with the douche who killed my‒!"

My gun was still in my hand. I shot Inaho's sister. Fired four more times, as she twitched against the cell wall. She still whispered his name, and cried out for someone called Marito, before she died.

"My, my Princess…you were wrong about her!" The words spilt out, "She's gentle, kind…I wanted to protect her, serve her, be with her…" I stared at Jescombe. "I'm sorry‒!"

"What about, your grace?" He stood at ease, eyes front. "Didn't see or hear a thing."

I didn't break down, yet. My breathing was steady. I felt stillness settle over my eyes and face like a layer of steel. Jescombe was telling how he felt about such filthy terrorists, what they deserved‒

I marched off down the corridor, desperate to reach the open air. The sounds of torture still settled in my ears. I hoped Jescombe would do something about it.

-0-

-0-

I kept it together on the flight back to Tokyo. I felt nothing worse than unease, until I slumped down in my own Landing Castle, on my cold bed.

I couldn't unbutton my jacket. My fingers shaking, chest bursting, like the sea off Tanegishima, drowning, drowning–and how much better if I had, for all the world!

I ripped both rows of buttons off my coat. Tore the cravat apart before it strangled me. When my Princess swept in to welcome her fiancée in a lovely yellow dress, she found him on the floor, wailing like a motherless child.

"Slaine. Slaine, Slaine….shhh." Her bare arms were soft as wings, "It's alright. You're safe. We're both going to be safe."

"I…I…killed…"

"Saazbaum? He was the murderer who killed Inaho-San. I know how fearful it is, when you can barely keep from hating. But for what he did, he had to die."

"I…! I…! Princess, I killed them! I…!"

"Shh. Whatever it was…I forgive you. You're my brave, beloved knight, and I know your heart is kind."

Her perfume filled my throat, and I couldn't tell her. I knew nothing would damn me more surely than forgiveness abused. But I simply couldn't give her up–my Princess, her world I'd fought so hard for. Even to save my soul.

"Princess….I can't be with you anymore. I'm not worthy, I'm pathetic...!"

I clung to her, buried my head in her chest. She caressed my hair; her sweet voice whispered.

"Oh, Slaine. It is truly hard to love. When we were children it was so easy to be kind; everyone was kind to me. But when I came to Earth, when we lost Inaho-san…when I heard what you'd been through for me...I learnt how much love hurts. It can be deep enough to drown in...we both lost our parents so early, we never understood. But we can learn how to love each other, Slaine! I can't imagine how hard it is for you, growing so strong to carry so much. But waiting for you, that was hard for me! Drowning every day, in fear as deep as love, that I'd lost you too…please, Slaine. You're the only one who can save me. Take my fear away…"

Her tears made me strong, like armour. I rose up in Asseylum's arms, and gave of my best. I had to protect her. She didn't really want to hear about murder and lies. Just to talk about how wonderful I was. How it felt when I kissed hard on her neck, how we had to get married very soon…

This was all I had left. I had to lie, and suffer, and protect my Princess. Her pathetic, selfish fairy-tale prince.

-0-

-0-

We were married in January. My Princess had the grand ball she wanted, marking Vers' transition from martial nation to land of peace. As living heir of the vanished alien gods of Mars, Asseylum's grandfather conducted the ceremony. He looked happy as a child at the fair. My own father gave the bride away; the only moment when Asseylum looked any less radiant than my dreams. I practised my ballroom dancing hard. She said she'd felt us flying, when we finally drifted from the dancefloor, flushed and breathless.

We honeymooned in Ireland, where my parents were born (though father took Wellington's line about being born in a sty). Asseylum loved the green moors and bright tarns; she said they were as lovely as I'd promised. When we came to a brook, I helped her over the stepping stones. When we found a flowery glen, I sat back to watch her twirl about and play. Together, we put flowers on my mother's grave. There were no bombs, no one shot at us. It was wonderful.

At night, I finally let my bride peel my clothes away and see my scars. She clung to my hand, kissed every mark, and washed them with her tears. The power of Aldnoah had wiped any scar from her head and chest, so I kissed her beautiful eyes.

"It's strange," She told me, as we watched seagulls over the cliffs of Moher, "When I saw birds for the first time, with poor Inaho, I was thinking of you, Slaine. Now…I'm sorry, I can't help remembering him…."

"It's alright, Princess. He...died protecting you."

I held her, and my face was iron. Yes, that was the last time of perfect happiness in my life.

-0-

-0-

The Emperor retained his faculties just long enough to see the first colony ships leave for earth. I had no enemies left among the nobles, the colonists loved me, and I had enriched common soldiers with the purged nobles' estates. Father and the security services were at our back. Asseylum was crowned as Empress, her husband as Crown Consort and Emperor. There was a new uniform, red with a lot of gold trim. Little else felt different.

But Vers and Terra had changed. Commoners of wealth and nerve could emulate my rise, gaining power through popular acclaim. For Harklight, I personally abolished the third class. The nobility had lost all trust and respect thanks to Saazbaum; the survivors clung to their castles and territories. We built new settlements in the baroque Martian style, mansions for the new rich; even nature reserves and parks for the colonists. If you've never seen children born on Mars rowing down a river with their parents or walking through a Carolinian forest–it almost makes you believe the world has hope. We set up Aldnoah reactors as well. But the more we had, the less forced Terran labour we needed from the camps and fenced cities.

And rebels were everywhere, as soon as the colonists had landed to make soft targets for bombs and kidnapping. In the Near East, in Afghanistan, and we never had enough men to cover China or Russia. They never gave us peace. Never let me forget about Orange, and the lie, every time I held my Queen, or gazed on her immaculate face.

-0-

-0-

"Now, open your eyes…"

My breath caught, as I looked at her latest artwork.

"You always amaze me, Asseylum. This skill, boldness, vision, and you only learned last month…"

"Isn't it only because this planet has so many wonders?" She kissed me, careful of my uniform in her paint stained smock, "It's for you. You gave me such a wonderful birthday present that I simply had to return the favour."

(I'd been worried that a stable of horses was a step down from the Zoo I'd set up outside New Washington in honour of our wedding. But Asseylum loved the horses and everything about them; she became as good at riding as painting, judo or anything else she tried.)

"Asseylum, I'm afraid I can't go hiking with you in Algonquin tomorrow. I'll be in a video conference with Orga and his faction all day. You could go by yourself–"

"Just me, a small army of guards, and no husband? No, I'll stay at home and find some lovely flowers to paint." I no longer needed to tell her, the conference on security would only trouble her if she participated.

"I'm sorry, Asseylum. Are you…truly happy with all this?"

"….perfectly, darling. Only, dear Slaine, don't you think you should have a hobby like this, for relaxing by yourself?"

"Well…even with father, running the world does take up some time."

"Exactly; I'm really worried you work too much. I'm certainly glad you don't smoke, drink, or play around with women–" I raised an eyebrow. Sometime later, the conversation resumed on the sofa, "–but, honestly, darling, you need something else to take the stress and worry away."

"My exercise routine helps with that."

"Mmm." She ran a lingering hand over my chest, "It certainly does."

"I find time to read as well," I kissed along her collarbone as I spoke, "And I could learn horse-riding beside you, my love?"

"Yes. Yes. My knight…yes."

My Asseylum. Every day with her was another wonder.

Afterwards, we agreed to visit our Zoo for a weekend date. The Zoo's great advantage was the fences; with fewer guards needed, our day together would be more intimate. As I left Asseylum resting on the sofa, to change my uniform and prepare for tomorrow's conference, I looked back at her painting. Among canvases of flowers and all kinds of animals, it was a painting of me. Did my eyes really look so kind? All the time?

The next morning, as we ate breakfast with a silent row of maids behind us, I stepped out to take a call from Jescombe.

"No doubt, your Majesty. They planned to shoot her Majesty at range, during her morning riding lesson. I simply don't understand these scum."

"The Empress is Rayregalia's heir. Without her, I have nothing. Two birds with one bullet."

It was envy, as well. My sweet, beautiful Queen with her palaces and luxuries, and the vulgar, hate-filled Terrans struggling for life. They knew she was the way to hurt me. And she had had the temerity to promise them peace. The man who plotted to kill her two weeks before our marriage, during a shopping trip, had said something of the kind during his interrogation. I told him she had tried, before I shot him.

My Queen, golden hair falling loose about her cheeks, glanced up from the poached eggs and smiled at me. I moved away from the doorway, out of her sight.

"…they fled the territory, but we're practically certain they're in Mexico." Jescombe was saying. "Your orders, Sire?"

Her innocent smile. My Queen, my light. Hair blossoming, in a sea of blood. I would not let them hurt her. Whatever means it took, I would not fail her again!

"Track these terrorists down and kill them. Kill every Terran within five miles. Leave my name out of it, and Her Majesty's name too. Say they planned to bomb New Washington. The Resistance leaders behind them should get the message." I truly hoped that they would.

"Yes, your Majesty. Long live the Emperor."

-0-

-0-

In two years I ordered three purges, all reprisals for assassination plots against Empress Asseylum. Father, his agents and the Counts carried out all the rest of the purges, tortures and forced displacements. They worked out all the details. I just let it happen.

To root out terrorists, everything had to be tried. No civic freedom for Terrans. Total disarmament. We even planned on denying them post-industrial technology; Vers could only rule by awe and fear. Of course, any Terran prepared to separate from old humanity and swear allegiance to Vers could live freely, at least for the first year. By the second year, Terrans could only rise above drudgery by enlisting in special security units to oppress their own people. Mazuurek in Arabia, Klancain in Japan and Massingherry in South-East Asia made their territories into havens of safety, but the rest of the world was a despotism or a battlefield. I told my wife that all would be well when we had peace on earth. Even after I stopped believing.

"Father. You said your dream was to give all humanity the activation factor; to create a world of peace, free from earth's past. Was that ever true?"

"Still is, my boy," He smiled; he almost _twinkled_, "Just a few more years to clear the dead wood away. We changed the world in barely a year, and we'll change it again." He was either a better liar than me, or more stupefying idealistic than I'd ever been.

As the bombings and reprisals gathered pace, I let my wife leave our new palace in Washington less and less; there was no place for her goodness in the world I'd made. I told her every morning she was lovely as ever, but felt it less every day. The traitor who let war break her innocence and strength couldn't even deserve to feel love.

She tried to love me–my pure, gracious angel, she always tried. But she barely knew me, any more than the crowds that roared themselves hoarse, whenever I showed myself in public. I was the hope of Vers, conqueror of earth. Maybe they knew me better.

After a year, Princess Lemrina tried to hang herself in her garden. I had her committed to a secure hospital, without even visiting her. I could have fought it, once. But I was lying to the woman I loved, every day. I couldn't believe I was more than the strongest, vilest worm on top of the heap.

-0-

-0-

Which brings me back to where we started. My own Queen, with my own gun. Slaine Troyard. Emperor of Mars. On top of the world, just waiting to fall.


	8. Truth and Sorrow

**Off the Canary Islands, 2018**

Her face was terrifying. I could only meet her eyes because she looked so beautiful. Gripping the pistol with both hands; all fear gone from her eyes, at last.

I had dreamt of this future. The only nightmare I never told to her. The only one that made me cling to her side, instead of banishing myself to another bedroom. Still the lonely, desperate child she had saved. Still the filthy Terran, waiting for punishment of his sins.

And I would take it. For her sake, I would've killed Orange a hundred times, but I couldn't save her. I never could. Not now. She would never understand. I couldn't let her forgive me. My finger stayed on my forehead, a crosshair between my eyes.

"It's okay, Asseylum. My life is yours to take. I killed Kaizuka Inaho. He put you in danger, I couldn't forgive him–"

"No! I chose to go with him, Slaine, and he cared about my choice! You were my jailer, not my husband. I gave you my all, I trusted you with every hope, and you made my life a lie!"

Every word was soaked in tears. She knew how much she hurt me. But I'd never known…she'd loved him? The Terran boy I'd shot? He couldn't have loved her…

"Why, Slaine? I thought we had the same dream! The Knights, your father, I knew they were doing awful things, but not you! You were gentle and kind…but you changed. Why–?"

I dropped my hand. Stepped towards her. My voice was cold and level as a blade.

"Saazbaum's Earthfall Operation killed more than father, or the other Knights. All because the love of his life was lost to him. Beside you, I could be the image of a decent king. Without you–can you imagine what I'd be?"

"Slaine!"

The pistol shook in her hands. I was moving closer. She couldn't step back, without falling into the sea. I could seize her wrist. Protect her! Wipe out the vermin that had driven us apart. I'd do it, if she didn't shoot me now–

Tears shone in the sunlight, on my wife's face. I couldn't touch her. What a demon I'd become for her sake!

"Asseylum. Please." My hand was on my heart now, "Don't keep me any longer, in this pain. If I can't save you, I'm worth nothing, and you can't forgive–"

"Did you not forgive Saazbaum? Before he shot me?"

She said it. The ultimate sin, the worst agony, at last. I fell to my knees.

"No. No! I let him hurt you–!"

"I forgave you for that. Years ago."

-0-

I was as still as the moment before a plane drops out of the sky. My gun was steady in her hands; the tears were gone.

"I knew from the start. I saw you'd knocked down Inaho, and protected Saazbaum, before he shot me. I never said anything, I knew it would hurt you–but you forgave that murderer, because you were gentle and kind. He hurt me, but I forgave you, Slaine…but you killed Inaho. And don't you dare say you did it for me."

No. No. It was true. The lies I hid in, the truth that damned, crashing down on me in an instant.

He had loved her. Protected her, beaten Saazbaum down, and I killed him. I knew what I'd done, I just never faced it. Because I saved the man who shot her, there could never be forgiveness–I killed the boy she loved who had brought her there, because I needed someone to share the blame.

I needed her. The only worth of this Terran dog was in her eyes, and how could they ever look with care, or grace, on the one who had seen her fall? I hid the truth, and I hid her grace. Smothered all her goodness, for my weakness, for this evil, worthless monster–how easy to be a monster in a world of darkness. How proud I'd been!

Now I looked up at her. The light I never believed in, the mercy I cast away forever. Lowering the gun to my head. I wept in despair and wept in terror, because death would be no release. The demon's fall through outer dark would never, never end.

"…I'm sorry. I'm sorry…"

Bright like the angel of justice, Asseylum stared down at me. Her eyes were as unsearchable and lovely as the sky, as she threw my gun away. Staring at each other, we heard it hit the water and sink.

Finally, I raised shaking hands to her–without a word, she reached down. Dried my tears on her sleeve.

"Asseylum! I'm sorry…"

She said nothing. Her mouth was still as iron. Then she swept past me, and walked away. Pushing aside the line of guards and crew my cries had drawn–she didn't need to remind them, she was the Empress of Mars.

While the Emperor of Mars, on his knees, howled and cried and finally smiled, because his wicked, worthless life had been saved by her at last.

-0-

"…the assassination that provoked the Second Earth-Mars war was the work of Count Saazbaum, first to last. No Terran individual, or element of the UFE, was involved in any way. I am sorry that three years had to pass, before the truth was spoken. As sovereign of the Empire of Vers, for all the unjust harm we have done to you, people of Terra…I am sorry.

"In haste, and in arrogance, we misused the power that my Grandfather unearthed in such hope. In bitter mistrust, and in response to us, the people of Terra have also done terrible things. Too many good souls, of Terra and Mars, have been driven to deeds that seem unforgivable. But for the sake of our future together, on this precious planet, we must forget the past. For the sake of our friends that are lost, we must forgive. And I must implore your forgiveness."

"In token of my sincerity, I intend to grant full civil rights to all Terrans within Versian borders, exclusive of Versian citizenship. The independence of Terran China, Terran Russia and Terran Central Asia will be formally recognized…"

"Well? What do you think of her, father?"

We were watching the Empress's broadcast, in a lounge of the New Washington palace. As I noticed how tired and haggard he looked–three years as essentially the most powerful man on Earth had taken their toll–he glanced at the two armed men waiting by the doors. He might have run the security service for years, but he had selected them to turn against the Orbital Knights. I hadn't failed to persuade them to turn against him; otherwise the Empress would never have got within fifty yards of a microphone.

"I give you a year." His voice was quiet and calm, "A year before everything goes to smash. Did you imagine two soppy teenagers could rule a world like this? It was me who gave you everything, not your gold-haired idol. Your life, your power, your woman–all of it was from my work!"

"Yes it was, father. Thank you. We'll make good use of it. You'll remain under house arrest. You might say–at her Majesty's pleasure. If you try to escape, or perpetuate your blood-soaked role in world affairs…then you will face the execution your crimes deserve."

"My research?" Father smiled. The security men paused in the act of taking him, "The one thing I never gave you, Slaine. All in code, or in this head. If you want a future where all mankind can use Aldnoah–the perfected Revival Tank, eternal life for your Princess!–you'd better begin your apology, _toot sweet_."

"I think not. The world's best researchers and cryptographers are working to duplicate your results. They may never succeed; but I can live with that. Nothing in my life has made me desire eternity, not for anyone. No miracle of science can bring peace or happiness alone, whether the mass of humanity own it, or an elite few. It takes a change of hearts, and the power from God. Not Aldnoah, but love. Asseylum always told me that, when–"

That was when the eminent Dr Troyard knocked down both security men with pressure-point blows, snatched a pistol and aimed it at his son. Who gripped the pistol slide, before punching him back onto the sofa.

"I'm sorry, father." His glasses had been knocked away. As my men staggered up and pinned his arms, I held them out to him.

"Sorry? The cheapest word! Can you imagine how much I sacrificed?"

"Who for, father?"

He only glared at me, with all the ice in his soul. When I was a child, I'd really believed he was a great man. Mother had loved him, once, after all, and given him her pendant. His only gift to me without a price; the one I lost all those years ago.

"What do I want now?" He finally rasped, "To put you over my knee and flog you to death."

"If you wanted me to suffer, you got your wish."

There seemed nothing more to say. They took father away, and I stayed in that lounge. He was gone. Asseylum was gone; I hadn't seen or spoken to her, since that day. Poor Harklight was dead. Orange was dead. I was alone.

I felt empty. Hearing of the Empress's broadcast, I had seized control of the security service and deposed my father by something like a motor reflex. I had to protect her. But how could I protect her? The fool who only hurt her and made a nightmare of the world she loved. What I could do, but feel the gnawing, guilty worm? Like a prisoner in a cell.

I didn't hear the phone, but an aide brought it in. He said it was the Empress–I took it.

"Asseylum! I'm sorry–!"

"Just listen to me, Slaine. This is what I need you to do."

-0-

Six months later

"You don't look so good as you did, your Majesty."

"Could it be 'Slaine', Princess? I'm your brother-in-law, after all."

I smiled at Lemrina, ruefully. I was sitting on the grass beside her wheelchair, in the enclosed hospital garden. Since overcoming the worst of her depression, she most of her time here, beneath the spreading trees, with a coat thrown over her hospital gown.

"I knew father had a tough job." I went on, "It used to be that I gave the all orders, or thought I did, and he worked out the details. Now Asseylum gives the orders, and I work out the details. Mazuurek and Klancain help us a great deal, and Zebrin as well–marrying Rafia did him a world of good."

"You don't give any orders, Slaine?"

"I lost that right a long time ago. I proved–probably I always knew–I'm not the ruling type."

"When you rose from a Terran to an Emperor–? I don't know. You just had too many good intentions."

"Quite. I can still offers suggestions–it's more than I deserve, but I want to ensure that more Terrans can take posts of responsibility. As Versian citizens, or simply as Terrans. I owe that to Kaizuka Inaho at the least. But he's far from the only one I wronged, Princess…I'm truly sorry I wasn't there when you needed a friend."

"I survived." She looked away as she spoke, "How…is the situation between you and my sister?"

"She lets me see her once a month now. We talk about policy, and ourselves. It feel good that there are no lies between us anymore."

"Yet the world doesn't even know you're separated. She still wears her wedding ring on broadcasts…does she take it off when you're alone?" I nodded, "No lies. That's just like her."

(My Empress had even named the one who had informed her of my lie. Of course, it was someone from the Deucalion, a wanted resistance fighter. If we ever tracked him down, I would have nothing to do with it. Jescombe? I'd kicked him upstairs to a job with no duties and a huge salary. He'd only been following orders)

We sat in silence, until visiting hours were over. As I wished Lemrina good health, and stood up, she caught at my sleeve.

"Slaine. You did some awful things, but you're nothing like your father. Your Princess needs you…she shouldn't have to grow up without any father at all."

Lemrina. She was so understanding…I couldn't visit her more often than this. Not alone. True and final damnation was no further from me than Asseylum's sister, and her sad, beautiful eyes.

-0-

Anyway. There's an excellent reason that I've said nothing until now about my littlest Princess. Allieria Vers Asseylum, my eighteen-month old daughter, terrifies me even more than her mother. Far more, because I could hurt her so much.

Being born into the Vers royal family was bad enough. Because of my sins, she sees her father once a month, and her mother barely more often. 'Father'–the very word fills me with terror. She's just too delicate. Too beautiful. I might spoil her, control her, hold her too close, hurt Asseylum through her…I learnt the hard way what harm my good intentions do.

Once a month, no more. Redemption isn't cheap, it isn't easy. After that day, our feelings could never be the same. We didn't speak for three months after that first phone call; actually, we didn't need to. In the weeks after The Apology, filled with riots, furious meetings and the release of hope and hatred too long suppressed, I understood exactly what she wanted. And, miracle of miracles, she trusted me to do it. We could have understood each other so well, if only I'd told her the truth…but I just gave her palaces, and animals, and love and lies.

"…It barely felt as if you loved me, after the first year. I know you did, but–you didn't love me for what I did. A Princess can't do without that love. But I didn't try to tell you, or do anything by myself, for our world. I needed whatever love you gave me; I couldn't bear the thought of being hated."

"Most of the nobles hate you, since you started to mend this world."

"I can live with that, Slaine." She smiled, "When I had to face what despair had made you, I had to keep hoping myself. You did make me stronger, in the end."

My Empress–such a Queen as nations have dreamt of. She told enemies they could forgive, and they believed her–if only she had freely ruled from the start! For three months I'd been in agonies about her safety, but no Terran assassin had sought her life since the Apology. She had even been able to volunteer in the slums and refugee camps of the Southern States, at first in disguise, then openly. I thought the world was all darkness and hatred; but so much was only in me.

"Lemrina looked well when I visited her," Asseylum sighed, "Poor girl. Are you finding enough to do, Slaine? Not just work. Is there anything you can do to relax on your own?"

"I do the same exercise routine each day, since I was Cruhteo's soldier; just like every other Martian soldier. I find time to read; mainly the Bible. I go for walks in the hills, or the woods. And I work." I looked away from her, "It was only work and survive, with Cruhteo; nothing for self and all for Vers. Father was better…no, mentally, he was worse. Nothing could be without purpose, or less than the best for him. Everything was for him and his ambitions, then everything for you…I'm sorry. I'm sure I'll get better."

"...I don't know if I can forgive your father. Have you visited him?"

"One day. I hope."

"Yes, you can forgive him, and forgive yourself. You did wrong, but..."

"No. I killed. I lied. Exploited and caged you, and only for myself….I was a villain. I couldn't even pity myself. But you did. I might despise myself more than ever, for abusing such grace…but I have hope."

She didn't answer. It was alright. I couldn't depend on her, like a child; hope and salvation were for working out myself.

We both stared away at the garden of the Empress's new residence outside Washington. With half an eye on the faithful Eddelrittuo, carrying our daughter between different flowerbeds. When the Princess finally grew restive, Eddelrittuo took her back up to the veranda, and deposited her in her mother's arms.

"Dada?"

My little Princess Allieria looked up at me. She had her mother's golden hair, and my own eyes…was there unease already, as she looked on her father's face?

I rose, made my excuses, and walked away from the table on the veranda, content as a guilty wretch could be. Eddelrittuo stared after me; if Vers had changed a little, we had changed more. In that moment, my Empress only had eyes for her baby.

I had work to do, for the world my Empress was making. In my palace–crowded with clerks and aides, lonesome as a cell without her–I would serve my Empress with every hour I had left. The fallen angel, crawling back up toward the light. Dreaming of the impossible day when his queen might look on him, without the agony of loss in her eyes.


	9. Revolutionary justice

Another burst of gunfire sounded, outside the church. Two of my guards returned fire, before the rack of silence turned again. I sat before the altar, with my Empress. She hugged our daughter to her chest, and looked back at me.

The derelict Orthodox chapel was the most defensible building in the village. Between a squad of royal guards and my surviving aides, had every opening covered. But the Terran resistance fighters had us surrounded, and more were coming every hour. Our last two cars were barricading the door; with our Kataphract gone, a breakout would have been suicidal.

My Empress had thrown up her holographic disguise, again, but her eyes were still lovely. I had to look on them, one more time.

"Slaine, I'm–"

"No, I'm sorry. We should have held the talks in Japan. I should have bought one more Kat…or perhaps this day was always going to come." I tried to smile for her and failed, but she did.

"You have changed, these past years, Slaine." I glanced at the altar, the battered crucifix above, and confessed that I had been humbled, "Did you find peace?"

"Of course, my Queen." I glanced away as more shots rang out, "It was your forgiveness, that first saved me–"

"No lies. I never said I forgave you, did I?"

She never had. A miracle spared my life that day, but the words I dreamt of never came. Every day for five years–I remembered his face, and hers. Knew it was impossible.

-0-

**Weeks ago**

My Empress was not wrong to fight for power-sharing. Terra never ceased resistance; if we weren't going to crush them, we had to negotiate, as Churchill nearly said about the Irish. Cede power and resources to nearly-autonomous Terran regional governments. The Counts screamed 'never' and the Terrans screamed 'not enough'–also, half their elected leaders were ex-resistance fighters, guilty of every war crime in the book. We had to very carefully avoid giving power to genuine terrorists.

One of them, the new president of Versian North America asked me–did I know how many men's blood was on my hands? How many children crippled, how many women tortured or raped? How many names had I known? Could I tell any of them what worthy cause their deaths had advanced? I couldn't tell them, didn't know their names–it would have been no help in any case. I'd known too little and self-decieved. They were dead because of me, and I had to keep on living.

Some Terran leaders were men and women of vision. It was hard to be friends, after everything, but there could never be peace without talk, and honesty. So my Empress told me–I wasn't invited to many such talks. I did more to try and bring the Counts into line; and there was a loyal core. Even the old war-hawk Orga stayed loyal for my sake. That really gave me hope.

It was the minor nobility and commoners of wealth who really hurt me. I'd risked life and rank to forge a path for them to rise, but a path to peace held no profit for them. Former Terrans with Versian citizenship–tens of thousands who I had fought to protect from racism–wished nothing better than enslavement on Old Humanity as a mass. Their new Vers would be egalitarian and honourless as a dogfight. There had been a dream that was Vers, Klancain said. But only the nightmares came true.

For nearly three years, I had hope; even my night terrors faded away. Only my days were full of guilt and regret. A thousand voices clamoured for me to retrieve the honour of Vers from the Empress's peacemongering, or abdicate and free her from my bloodstained past. I would have resigned in a minute, even to face a war crimes trial, a cell, or a firing squad. But my Empress never ordered me to.

I say I had hope; perhaps the war was just a long time preparing. In the fourth year eight Counts and half the minor nobility rebelled; Earth for the Versians, and the soles of their boots for Old Humanity. They couldn't pass Activation Rights to their heirs, without the Imperial Family. But if my Empress, or our little Princess, fell into their hands, the world was theirs.

Orga was assassinated by his own barons. Zebrin died in battle. After a fortnight in the saddle avenging his death, Rafia followed him. More nobles broke away, or simply stood aside. Sensing the danger of a second conquest, Terran forces rose against Versians everywhere.

What would father have done? What would poor Harklight have advised? What would Kaizuka Inaho have done, if I hadn't blown out that incredible brain in an evil hour?

After a year, with swathes of North America in rebel hands, I went to Asseylum, and we had a long talk. We sent Princess Lemrina on a ship back to Mars, along with my father–who knew what the rebels could do with his research? And then my Empress scheduled a conference with the free Terran leaders in Rihadya, Saudi Arabia.

Teleconference was unthinkable; she would have to meet them face to face. We had a terrible row about whether I should go with her, or join the fighting outside New Washington. I told her she had never understood anything. She called me a selfish idiot and a child. In the end, she got her way; I gifted the Tharsis to Orga's son, Vassily, and went with her and the Princess.

-0-

-0-

Secretly, we selected a new anti-grav cruiser for our transatlantic flight. My Empress said the Deucalion had been less comfortable, with the sad look that never left her eyes in those days. My Princess charmed our whole escort by naming the abilities of every Kat in the hanger, but insisted she would be a peacemaker like her Mummy when she grew up. I caught her staring at me sometimes, but we hardly spoke.

My Empress sat in icy silence. It was so unbearable that I had to wander off to the cockpit, to ask the crew about their families, and what they did.

"But surely as a former pilot, you know that, your Majesty?" The female pilot trilled. I talked a little with her, left the bridge, and paused outside the door

"…not so dynamic as he seems on TV…but even more handsome!" I heard the pilot whisper, "How can her Majesty be so frigid, when she's got such a fine man?"

"Well…" Another female voice, "They say he had an affair with her sister."

"Never! Her half-sister who tried to seize the kingdom with Saazbaum? What a scheming witch!"

Sorry, Lemrina. I returned to my seat, and gazing out at clouds. Until everything lurched, like a falling ship in a bottle. As we started going down, I leapt up, heading for the bridge–until Asseylum seized my wrist.

I stayed with them and held my Princess in her terror, as the pilots barely shot past the coastline, and brought us down with a fearful crash onto a dusty road.

-0-

-0-

"Dreadful outrage, your Majesty." Count Pherring–fat and wild-haired as ever on my screen–spread his hands, "Those blasted Terrans destroyed an Aldnoah power plant in Eastern Europe. The gravity waves took out every anti-grav drive in the hemisphere. Viscountess Orlane perished that way, in Heaven's fall, I understand. I'm afraid my territory has been crawling with hostile natives since the war, so I implore you to sit tight. An escort of fifteen Kats should be with you soon."

"Your dedication does you credit, Count Pherring." I smiled, ended the call, and told my aides we would be leaving for Mazuurek's territory within half-an-hour.

"Not…treachery, Sire?" My guard captain blustered.

"I've suspected Pherring for years, and now he's too ready. Too informed. The power plant bombing was no coincidence, and his 'escort' is the real threat. We have three official cars, one APC for the royal guard squad and six Kataphracts. All non-combatants will set off towards Pherring's force and surrender themselves. Five Kataphracts will remain here to delay Pherring. My family, my aides and the guard will make a run for the Arabian border, with the Argyre."

"Could we not contact Count Mazuurek for aid, your Majesty?" This from Baron Geary, a thin, big-nosed diplomatic attaché who reminded me of Trillram.

"No, the signal would be traced, and reveal our location. We'll keep radio silence, and bring a radio jammer from the cruiser to ensure it."

I glanced to one side. My Empress had already changed into a white trouser suit and sunhat; she nodded slightly, accepting my words without a doubt. Allieria looked proudly ahead, but her hand tightened on her mother's. Precocious as ever, she knew I had cut communications off because there was a traitor within, as well as without.

-0-

-0-

We left the five Kats, with the Knights who would give their lives for our safe passage, and drove off through Palestine towards Jordan. The Argyre loping ahead, the APC rumbling behind. We were all was too taken up with scanning the dull, rocky horizon to speak. I was thankful that Versian Emperors can make such concessions to the heat as wearing their jacket open.

On the first evening that we stopped and bunked down in our vehicles, I slept alone in my official car, or pretended to sleep. The radio jammer was on the seat beside me, and a royal guard was hidden under the opposite seat. Our traitor could only inform Count Pherring of our location by switching the jammer off–when he tried, we would have him. He might be more patient; but I had a hunch he would be desperate.

"I could watch alone, Sire," The guard finally hissed, "You could be with your family?"

"Even for an Emperor, some things aren't easy, sergeant."

"What, next to everything else you've done? Um, forgive me, Sire…" I smiled, rose, and walked out towards the car where my wife and daughter were sleeping. Asseylum met me in the darkness half-way there.

"Oh, Slaine. Was Allieria with you?"

"No," Cold fear gripped my heart, "Isn't she with you?"

She wasn't in Asseylum's car. The sentry had seen her leave in the direction of my car. Another sentry had thought Baron Geary was taking her back to her mother.

The name hit like a meteor. I turned from Asseylum and dashed away from the camp, into darkness cold as space.

-0-

-0-

"–so stupid to come with no gun, and no compass! You're the Emperor! Mama said you could never come and be with us, because you were Emperor…"

"Sorry. I was never a very good one."

For a man who'd pursued his daughter's kidnapper across a desert all night, disarmed him and choked him to death, I felt very small and silly.

"Hmph," Tears stood in her eyes as she pouted, "Thank you for saving me, stupid Emperor. Suppose the stories about you and Mama were true."

"Stories…?" I was on my knees.

"Auntie Rittuo told me. She said you always came to rescue Mama. She said you really, really loved…"

Her tears were pouring. I held her tiny, golden form and sobbed out that I had always loved her. Then I collapsed, and she had to force some of the Baron's water between my lips.

Recovering, I took his gun, compass and water, then rolled Baron Geary into a ditch. Allieria stared at the corpse, but maintained the poise of a future Queen. I thanked God that Geary hadn't gone to ground, but headed directly back towards our pursuers, gambling that no effective pursuit would be made. Thankfully, I had crept close to him, as he rested against a rock. Thankfully, I'd knocked his gun away, landed on top of him as we struggled…I had been foolish and lucky; I truly thanked God.

I had heard there was a God long ago, though father never had any god but self. In five years, I had read all I could of Him. Prayed for hours on my knees. Begged Him to take the devil who rebelled against his light, and make him a servant who could save. That was all I'd ever wanted to be.

But it was seeing Allieria grow, stumbling and precious, that let me understand how helpless I really was. How much this beautiful, bloodstained world, and I, needed a saviour. Stronger than me, even more wonderful than Asseylum–I had to see that. And He had changed me. With His help, I could face my wife and daughter, knowing I would lose them one day–just not yet.

After almost a day of walking, and an hour hidden from a passing goatherd in a wadi, I walked back into our camp, covered in dust, with our little Princess in my arms. Asseylum had watched the horizon for us all day. As she took Allieria, her knees buckled. She hugged her as only a mother can, and looked at me in a way I can't describe.

If we hadn't been travelling in constant peril, that week would have been perfect. Alliera told me about her tutors; she particularly loved both reading and science. She really loved ponies, and the puppy Asseylum had bought for her birthday. She had many friends among the servants' children–but when she grew up she was going to marry Count Mazuurek.

"He's married, isn't he?"

"Well, I'll be the Empress. So there. Or I'll marry someone just as smart and handsome and nice as Mazzie, and as brave as…someone really brave." She suddenly looked directly away from me. Asseylum stifled a laugh.

"…well, I wouldn't plan so far ahead yet, Allieria." I rested my hand on her golden head, "My future wasn't anything like I expected."

"But I want to make sure I have the future I want." I'd hardly ever felt such sadness in such contentment.

Then I told her and Asseylum about the Arabian horses and Oryx. Asseylum told me all she'd read about the tragic history of the Middle East. The hope and conviction in her eyes gave me such peace. She said it almost felt like that bittersweet journey she had made on the Deucalion, so long ago.

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. I don't want to be anywhere but here."

Our fingers touched; but no more. I felt her sadness. The convoy swept on in a cloud of dust.

"What happened then, Mummy?" Allieria asked innocently.

"It was in the war, darling. Too many bad things happened…."

"Tell her how you fought through them," I murmured, "She's your heir, your daughter…you shouldn't protect her too much."

With a faint smile, Asseylum started telling her daughter how Orange and I had defeated the Hellas off Tanigeshima. Stoically, I listened to the end.

-0-

-0-

The first attack by Terran resistance was swiftly defeated, but it was more of a test. In the second attack, a perfectly-timed missile took out the Argyre, as it protected the cars with its blade field. I shouldn't have promoted Sir Jacques for another year. He was skilled and utterly loyal, but too arrogant. Nothing seemed to drub out Versian arrogance, however they suffered for it.

The third attack, as we approached a minor town, was by three Areions. The royal guards were ready, and took them all out with missile launchers, but the last one managed to flip the APC first. We were surrounded by guntrucks full of fighters, and forced into the cover of the town church. The guards bombarded the attackers with missiles and bullets until we got room to breathe. It had only taken minutes for hope to vanish.

"Mummy?" Allieria had kept her hands over her ears the whole time, "Can we go somewhere else for our next holiday?" Asseylum's indomitable strength collapsed into tears.

"We won't let those dogs harm your family, Sire," The guard captain told me, "We can hold on until Mazuurek sends aid, if we radio now. Pherring could intercept the message–"

"–but we'd hardly be worse off." I had the radio, when Asseylum grabbed my hand.

"No. Pherring will intercept it, he will get here before Mazuurek, and he'll take us alive. I'd rather die here than give the Activation Factor to rebels."

It was a bad moment. I sat down for about a minute, before moving away with an aide.

"These people speak Arabic, don't they?"

"Yes, Sire. Probably English as well–"

"No. Tell them in Arabic that the Emperor of Mars is here. Do not mention the Empress. I can release any prisoners they choose; give them Kataphracts, or half of Arabia. As soon as you all reach safety in Mazuurek's territory, and the Count himself confirms it to me…I will be entirely at their disposal."

Face ashen, the aide shouted my offer into the street. A barrage of English and Arabic insults drifted back. Nothing came of it until late that evening.

-0-

**Present**

"Slaine? Did you ever find peace and freedom? Was 'sorry' enough?"

I looked back at her. Sighed.

"I don't know. I kept liberty, life, and my crown. Can I say I was truly sorry? That I paid for what I did? I took the world from Inaho, so much from so many…I took everything from you. If I could never atone for all I did, or be forgiven,,,I could only strive for your dream and true will, with all my strength. After everything, that's still what I want to do."

She reached out, and gripped my hand, before she spoke.

"Slaine…I wouldn't have spared you or kept you by my side, except that I believed with all my heart you are truly sorry. You've been my help and support, for seven years. The father of my precious child. I've…tried to forgive you, as hard as I can."

"Asseylum. I killed the man you loved…"

"Both of them. You took both the men I love from me," Silent tears ran down her face, "And what did I do? I failed my people. Failed in the purpose I was born for. I'm sorry…"

Could I hold her? Could I hold her, in this sorrow, one more time?

"No, Asseylum. You did all you could…but no human could have carried such a weight. Even an Empress needs a God–not the dead gods of Vers, but one who guides and saves. I prayed to Him, even before I could hope for His mercy–because I made you carry what only a God should bear."

"Yes. But I believed I could. I thought I could bring peace and justice for all …but, Slaine, I couldn't even save you. You showed me all your scars. But I never saw how deep your hurts went. Can your God forgive that?"

My Empress. My boyhood's golden idol. My wife. I reached out slowly, and touched her cheek.

"Yes, Asseylum. And I do."

"Sire!" The guard captain suddenly cried out, "The Terrans are calling for ceasefire…some top Resistance leaders have come, they're heading over now!"

"Let them come. Everyone, at ease."

I jumped to my feet. A bearded man, a woman in a headscarf, and several young Jordanians, armed to the upper teeth, pushed through the barricade at the door of the church.

"Slaine Troyard."

A growl, harsh as a dog's, but a _Japanese voice_–Asseylum gasped, and almost smiled. The slim, brown-haired woman didn't smile.

"The famous Colonel Koichiro Marito, I presume? And General Danza Magbaredge. You might say the gang's all here."

"Guess so. The two of them you didn't kill."

The face of the notorious resistance fighter was a mass of broken veins, beneath his beard. His voice was low, but his hate was old and raging. Over twenty-three years, Martians had sucked his life dry of anything else. I felt a twinge of fear, and then I saw the pendant tied round his neck.

My pendant. I realised that this was the man who was going to make everything right.


	10. Final peace

"Interesting pendant, Colonel Marito."

"The woman I loved left it for me," This with the vengeful ghost of a smile, "Something to remember her and her brother by."

Sure enough, I knew some of the souls my rise had crushed by name. To think how many I didn't know was fearful–almost as bad as meeting Colonel Marito's eyes.

"I...know you've suffered terribly," Asseylum spoke up, "I'm sorry for you.."

"We remember you well enough, Seylum-San." Magbaredge broke in, "No need for disguises or sympathy." The highest resistance leader for the Northern hemisphere preserved a clipped tone, and a steel-cold manner. Over eight years she had smuggled thousands of 'suspected terrorists' from Russia to Japan, and from the Near East to Arabia. If the UFE reformed, she would be a lead candidate for defence minister.

"Of course, it was only five years ago that you last met Empress Asseylum." My voice was just as cold, "May I ask why you took two years to reveal my lie to her?"

"You hardly made her easy to get to," Marito grated, "We had to blow up an entire palace as a distraction. And we weren't certain she'd even believe it, until she'd had two years to see what a murdering hypocrite she'd married." I'd been ready for it, but I still flinched. Asseylum didn't. "Tell me, Empress, are the rumours true about him banging your paraplegic sister?"

"No! You know that!"

"Shame. Maybe then you'd have done your job and killed him. Since shooting Kaizuka Inaho didn't seem to be enough." Now she flinched. Some of the children behind Marito snickered.

"Are you here to talk terms, or not?" The guard captain hissed, "You Terran–!"

"Silence!" I swept out my hand. Slowly, two dozen automatic weapons were lowered. "Colonel. General. You know Asseylum only ever wanted peace. None of these men had any part in the war, or the purges. I ask you to guide Her Majesty, the Princess Royal and her escorts to the territory of Count Mazuurek. In your hands, they will be safe from the Resistance. In return…you can deal with me as my crimes deserve."

Several of my party shouted words like 'never!' and 'impossible!' I silenced them with a look that said, nothing is impossible.

I could feel Asseylum's eyes. She didn't speak, for the sake of our wide-eyed little Princess, she couldn't. She understood. Repentance wasn't words alone, it was justice. It was the agony we felt, as the sword of Damocles came down.

"Why shouldn't we simply kill you all?" Magbaredge narrowed her eyes, "What has that Barbie doll ever done to stop you raping our planet, and killing everyone we ever loved?" I took a holograph projector from my pocket, and showed them the speech my Empress was due to give at the Rihadya conference.

Vers would return independence to all Terran nations, and give up her claim to their lands. We would provide the Terrans with charged Aldnoah drives and Kataphracts; defeat the Separatists at their side. Before we lifted off to return to Mars. All colonists would be gone within a year–only a few Landing Castle bases would remain.

In return, Terra would fight until the Separatists were finished, and send us every resource that we needed, until terraforming made Mars green again. If they refused, the Separatists would wipe them out, within a year. If they cut off the resources, then every Aldnoah drive they possessed would deactivate on the reigning monarch's death.

"With the forces en route from Mars, we could defeat the Separatists–with five years of bitter, pointless fighting. But fighting them together would give us a miracle. The second chance we don't deserve, but need."

"Did you really write this?" Magbaredge glanced at Asseylum.

"She will deliver it. She's the peacemaker. I'm the bloodstained devil."

I showed them my own speech, and the full deal. Free trade for Aldnoah, freedom, and my abdication. My full responsibility for every failure and crime. I asked if that was enough.

"Could be." Marito's dark eyes were like glass.

I turned to my men, the grimmest men I'd ever seen. Smiled at them.

"Thank you for protecting my family. You showed perfect courage; all the shame of this day is mine. My course is played out, today, but for the future of Vers, I only feel hope. She still has her Majesty, my Princess, and men like you."

In the silence, one of them sniffed. The guards lowered their weapons. Then Marito gave a sign, and the children behind him opened fire.

-0-

-0-

"Mummy…I'm scared. Mummy?"

Asseylum was untouched, burying Allieria's eyes in her chest. All our guards lay dead about the church. I stood there, hand frozen on my gun, as Marito walked forward, weapon out.

"Understand? You're no messiah, dying to save his people. You're a murdering scumbag, getting what he deserves! A stupid child who couldn't protect anyone! Not his comrades, not even his family!"

Magbaredge strode around Marito, reached for Asseylum. She rushed back to the wall, still holding Allieria. Aiming a handgun at the Resistance leader's face.

"Hold fire!" Magbaredge snapped. Turned back to Asseylum, "You have a conference to get to, your Majesty. Put down the gun."

Those blue eyes, wide with terror–I had to protect them! My Princess, my Asseylum, my light! I had to draw my gun, put a bullet in that vile face, then shoot those rats down beside Asseylum and protect her. All for her, my soul for her–

Slowly, I took my hand from my gun.

"No!" Asseylum shouted, "Not my child! Not Slaine! If you hurt them, I'll–!"

"Start a war? Some peacemaker! You were going to have to execute that fool anyway, or lock him up and eat the key, the hour he renounced the throne. That's called taking-responsibility-for-your war crimes! You fired the first shot, we have to take the last!"

"So if you ever cared a straw for peace, put that gun down, and come with us!" Marito roared, "You're going to live, however much you suffer! We're going to show you more mercy than your husband had for Kaizuka Yuki!"

"Put the gun down, Asseylum."

She stared at me. I had to protect her. I couldn't protect her. It was the hardest thing I ever did, to raise my hands above my head.

"Put the gun down. Please don't hate…I'm sorry. Thank you, for everything, and goodbye."

"Thank you, your Majesty," Marbaredge took the gun as Asseylum gave it to her, "By the by, why isn't that child on Mars already?"

"I knew…when Slaine abdicated, I would have to arrest him." Asseylum whispered. "I wanted to give her one chance to see her daddy."

Slowly, beautiful still, in every motion, she was taken away from me. Stepping over twisted bodies–the last of all the comrades I would sacrifice. Our eyes met, and then she was hidden, by the crowd that had gathered in the church to see me die.

I was smiling, when Marito punched me into the floor. He kicked me until he got tired, then he levelled his gun at my head.

His children with guns grinned down at me. Asseylum had told me what he had been. The monster my folly had made him glared into my swollen eyes.

"Don't think I'll miss you, Troyard. Plenty more Martians to kill. There's going to be war on earth forever, thanks to you."

"Perhaps. But we still pray for peace." I struggled to my knees, "Colonel…one day, you may be a teacher again. Asseylum said you were a good man. His sister…said your name." I looked at pendant my mother had worn, and my father had given me. The future? You can never tell.

I looked up at the battered crucifix. The king of the Jews, descending to this darkened planet; to live without sin and die in agony for the world's salvation. Even for mine? A great many kings have thought they were Jesus. But I can tell you of one who might have been the penitent thief.

Asseylum's eye, in that last moment, told me all I needed to know. I was her husband. Allieria was our daughter, and I could finally come home, because she forgave me.

Her eyes were clear, her steps strong–above the stench of blood, her head was raised. She would be a great Empress. She had never needed protecting, I'd just needed her…if only we could start again. If I could hold her, and sweep through a hundred balls, if we could only love until we were old. I knew I truly loved her, finally knew I was sorry, the moment I let her go.

I looked back, at Marito's gun. Had Orange felt this fear? Had poor Harklight? On the other side, would I finally meet them again? It might not be a happy meeting, but I was ready.

This was the price of peace. Only blood could wipe out blood. Let justice be done, though the heavens fall.

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue, a century later<strong>

Mama gave her speech in Rihadya, and told the world that Daddy was killed by independent militants; Terra and her leaders bore no blame. She played a recording father had prepared–after Novosibirisk he was always prepared–resigning his position as Emperor and crown consort. Taking the blame for everything he could, and hoping only for final peace.

No one stood against the Empress after that. Even the Versian colonists, losing their blue world, could see that she herself had lost more. She told the Terrans that if they cut off the resources Mars needed, or used their gifted Aldnoah drives to attack us, she would take her own life. Every drive they possessed would die with her. No Terran leader doubted her words; Mars got her tribute.

The Separatists were defeated within two years; some returned to Vers, some fought to the death. The last war was certainly the most terrible, but it ended; no more labour camps, no more meteor strikes, and the energy fences came down. Then Mama and me and all Vers, apart from Clans Mazuurek, Massingherry and Zebrin-Rafia, said goodbye to Earth, the cradle of humanity.

Mama was sad for a long time, but Aunt Lemrina helped her get better. Mars remembers Empress Asseylum and the last Emperor as a tragic couple that failed in much, but did their best. She asked me to end the final lie, after her death, and tell Vers what she did at Novosibirisk; there was some anger, but finally understanding. And Mama had me promise never to hate the Terrans for killing my father. That was hard, for a long time. But I used to have hard feelings for my Terran Daddy too. So I knew that people can change.

As yet, though, Earth is getting on as well, or badly, as it ever was. Life on Mars remains hard–authority and discipline are still the only possible government on the cold frontier. But there is more plenty, a little more freedom. Humility and compassion, even penitence. And unity as one nation, helping each other–not thirty seven. That was father's best legacy. Versians for Vers, whoever 'Versians' might be. Before the last war, as Mama tried to end Terran serfdom, the Orbital Knights moved thousands of their Terrans to Mars. Toiling beside the common Martians, the serfs became citizens in time. Their grandchildren are knights. The hatred of Terrans that Daddy suffered and first overcame is all but dead.

Mama never remarried, and I preferred hinting to any number of Counts that I might marry them, rather than actually doing it. So Mars has been an oligarchy since I retired. Father, at least, wouldn't have been displeased. Thanks to the late unlamented Dr Troyard's research, more of us have heritable Aldnoah–but not all humanity, yet, until they're finally ready.

Great-grandfather and his followers believed that humanity would be reborn on Mars, throwing off national and religious division to wield the power of the gods. But all the old human problems still have the same answer; not Aldnoah, but love, as Mama always said. Christianity still isn't so trusted on Mars that I could speak about it as more than an individual, but it's there. We have more books, films and ideas every year, as people meet and love, as their children grow. As two worlds that knew so much hatred begin to talk and trust.

Most of all, Mars has the hope of new beginning; the terraforming project will be finished in five years. I won't live to see a blue Mars. But in honour of forty years wise and peaceful rule, they tell me, the reborn planet will be called Minerva in my honour. I'm sure father would have been proud. I've been called the last and greatest sovereign of Vers–but I owe that title to so many good people, and two above all.

I hope they let me spend my final days at Castle Mazuurek on Terra. I can't say I knew my father. The Terran traitor, the truest son of Vers, the last Emperor, the villain and the hero. But I long to meet him again, somewhere, and see his blue planet one more time. Just as my Mama longed until the end, to meet the two Terran boys again who were part of her soul.


End file.
